Blood Blade
by OFSA
Summary: Akumi Chishio thirsts for adventure and will do anything to get to it. When her parents tried to stop her at the age of fourteen, she killed them. When her nen master said that she should control herself a year later, she killed him too. Looking for her next adventure, Akumi goes to stay with Zoldycks, following the two brothers when they go to take the Hunter Exam. No pairings.
1. A visitor

**Hello readers! This story is centered around Akumi Chishio, an OC. This story loosely follows the 2011 anime with a few things from the 1999 version thrown in. Enjoy!**

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When Kita Sakuma had applied for her job as a tour guide, her soon-to-be manager had asked her several questions, one of which was, "Why do you want this job?" This question was usually asked at most interviews, no matter the job type, and the answer usually turned out to be some sort of cheesy answer about life, money, growth, rewards… basically all those noble things that nobody actually cares about. Kita was no different in this regard.

_I want to help people learn! _That's what Kita had said along with some other cheesy bullshit about self fulfillment. In reality, she was just a drop-out college student that wanted some cash to get her next fix. Not as honorable as wanting people to learn, but hey! Rent and drugs don't come free. So here Kita was, working as a tour guide for Kukuroo mountain for the second summer in a row as she lied to parents about how _terrible _it was having to skip all the parties and booze so that she could finish her extra credit assignment (which as about as far from the truth as she could get).

Like any other afternoon, Kita took another joint of D2. Putting on happy face for tourists six hours day, five days a week, eventually wears down a person's nerves. The remedy that Kita had found to this problem was the lovely D2 drug, which her co-worker had given her as a gift after taking over one of her shifts that day, even though it would have been _lovely _if she could have gotten those before her shift had began. Looking around, she took note of the passengers that she would be spending the next few hours with telling them about the _wondrous _place that surrounded Kukuroo mountain.

Nobody really gave a shit about the small towns bordering the mountain. No, they were interested in going to see the Zoldyck family. The infamous family of assassins.

The passengers looked like the normal batch. There were a few families, a school group, and a handful of singles. And then there were the stupid people. These stupid people usually came during the afternoon right after lunch, as if they had the mindset that they would pop in, kill the family , and be back in time for dinner. This was why Kita called them 'the stupids' in her head.

People that wanted to hunt down and kill the Zoldycks were nothing new. Every few days, a group of thugs would show up looking for their claim to fame while acting all high and mighty, boasting about how they would take the Zoldycks and claim the something-million-or-billion Jenny reward that the Zoldycks had on their heads.

Kita thought back to her first week working as a tour guide. The first time she had seen Mike, the giant guard dog, drop the skeletons off outside the door, she had run back to the bus and made the driver floor it. The second time it happened, she had let out a squeak and then attempted to calm down the tourists. The third time, she had just resigned herself to the fact that it would happen and jumped onto the bus after making sure that all the tourists had gotten back on.

Kita was desensitized to seeing idiots go to their own deaths to say the least. After watching the same thing happen for two summers, she really couldn't help get but used to it. She also understood a few things. Despite the fact that she was a college drop-out, Kita wasn't stupid. She knew a trick when she saw one. She knew that the gatekeeper was faking the entire time, she knew the side door was a trap, and after careful thought, she guessed that the weird decoration on the wall was some sort of entrance.

The passengers in the bus started to get their cameras out and grab their stuff. Kita looked behind her and saw the gate approaching them. _Oh well_, she thought. _Guess it's time to see the next batch of idiots get eaten alive. _She took a deep breath and started the usual speech.

"We are now coming to the main part of the tour!" _You guys are all idiots. I hate people. I hate tours. Screw being social._ "Coming up right in front of us is the fence around the Zoldyck estate, home to the infamous family of assassins! Make sure to get plenty of pictures of the lovely design found on the wall!" _Design my ass. _Kita continued her speech, but she wasn't paying attention to that anymore. Instead, she was staring at one figure in the back of the bus who was listening intently while staring at the alleged door on the wall.

The person was dressed in all black. None of their facial features could be seen due to the sleeveless black hoodie that was pulled up over their head, but looking at the build, Kita assumed the figure was a girl. The girl also wore black denim shorts that looked like they needed a few patches in places. Along with this, there was a silver chain that hung down halfway past her thigh before going into her pocket. Combat boots were snugly attached to the girl's feet and black fingerless gloves practically screamed the words rebel.

None of this was what pulled Kita's attention towards the girl. Not the badass vibe or rebel clothes, not the way the girl sat like she was calculating world domination, not even the way she sat stock still even though Kita had trouble keeping balance while holding onto the silver pole. What caught Kita's attention was the tattoos. The girl's entire upper arms were covered in black tattoos with geometric designs that spilled down her forearms all the way to her covered wrists. Just looking at the tattoos made Kita want to close her eyes and never open them again, but just as she was about to do exactly that, she noticed that the designs were all cut up, none of them lined up perfectly with each other. Almost as if they were… sliced.

Kita's eyes widened in shock. The number of scars covering the girl's bone white arms were infinite. _That girl… whatever she's gone through, its been worse than hell. _The tour guide wasn't able to look away, her eyes traveling across the girl's body finding scars everywhere. There was barely a place where her skin wasn't marred by white lines.

Her eyes moved downwards, to the girl's legs, taking note that these tattoos were the exact same as the ones on the girl's arms, except these had the color red mixed in on certain areas.

The bus stopped and Kita almost fell on her face, not expecting the sudden change in motion. Quickly gathering herself, she finished the speech saying that she would be willing to answer any questions that people had- not that anyone ever asked. As she was saying this, the girl in the back of the bus jerked her head towards Kita and stared intently at her. Kita looked away quickly, unable to deal with the waves of calm murder that she could see in the girl's eyes.

Kita got off the bus quickly and went to stand under the tree that she usually stood under to watch the stupids get killed. Looking backwards, she almost fell on her face again from a mix of fear and shock. The tattoo girl was headed straight for her.

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The first thing Kita thought to do was to run. Run where? She had no idea. She just knew that she better get the fuck out of there if she wanted to live. Call her irrational but when a girl with enough scars to rival most blacklist hunters walks towards you, self-preservation kicks in.

The second thought that Kita had was something along the lines of _why would this girl hurt you? _but before her mind could fully form that thought, the tattooed girl was upon her.

The first thing Kita saw was the eyes. They were dark red, as if one was looking at a cup full of blood. The color was not what made her freeze in her place. It was the look in the girl's eyes. Some eyes are full of happiness. Others are full of complex emotions such as sadness, loneliness, or anger. Then there are the eyes that are full of something that just can't easily be named. In Kita's case, she knew what it was. She just didn't want to admit it. She saw eyes that could cut through diamond. It was the stare of a predator.

Before the girl could continue making her way towards Kita and within speaking range, the group of thugs started asking the gatekeeper for the keys. This of course led to the normal routine of giving the key to the thugs and said thugs going through the doors _that were obviously a trap. _The girl turned away from Kita, breaking the eye contact, obviously interested in the proceedings at the gate.

Moments later, screams could be heard along with the sound of crunching bones. The tourists scrambled towards the bus, going into a flat out sprint when Mike placed the crushed up skeletons of the thugs outside the door.

Kita was about to join them, albeit at a much slower pace, when a voice behind her spoke.

"You know how to get in." The voice was colder than ice, causing Kita to freeze in place, not daring to move. "Tell me." She slowly turned around, and stared in terror at the girl that was suddenly behind her who had been in front of her moments before.

"I-I-I don't uh, know how t-t-to get in." The girl continued to stare at her, obviously not believing Kita.

"You have a theory though," the girl said, cold eyes never leaving Kita's.

"Uh, w-well you see those d-d-decorations?" She pointed at the giant seven tiered rectangles. "I uh, thi-think they're er, doors. Giant doors!"

The girl seemed pleased with this answer because she nodded and stared at them thoughtfully.

"Hm..." Kita turned and slowly started to walk back towards the bus, ready to get the fuck out of there as quickly as possible, but before she could completely turn around, she felt a force push at her, causing her to stumble. She would have fallen if not for the fact that something was holding her up.

Then the pain hit her.

She looked down to see a long red blade sticking out of her chest right where her heart should have been. She only had enough time to slightly widen her eyes before she started to collapse onto the ground, the blade no longer there to hold her up.

"I'm done with you now. But you were useful while you lasted."

Before she could make any noise, a scream from help, shock, fear, or any combination of the three, Kita's vision was yanked suddenly to the side, only able to have a glimpse of a headless corpse and a girl with a blade in her arm before her vision was stuck at ground level, staring at tattoo covered legs. Kita's eyes were only able to widen in shock before her vision was filled with blackness. _That isn't red ink. That's splattered blood._

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**Thank you for reading the first chapter! Any feedback is appreciated!**


	2. A call

**Hello fabulous people. Here is the second chapter! Shout out to ****_breather,_**** who is my beta reader and has helped me figure out so many things. Also, I don't own any of the characters except random OC's, along with Akumi. **

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Zebro walked out of the tiny building beside the testing gate, ready to greet the tour group that came to the top of the mountain three times a day. He took a quick glance at the thugs, inwardly sighing... I_t's another day where I have to get "beat up."_ His gaze traveled over the rest of the group, seeing the normal batch of civilians before stopping at the figure that was dressed entirely in black.

_That person is dangerous,_ Zebro thought to himself. He quickly took a look around before hurrying into the small office right outside of the "door" that he had the key to.

Closing and locking the door behind him, Zebro grabbed the phone and dialed the head butler's number.

"Gotoh-sama," He began, eyes darting quickly to the window. He was sure that the odd person wasn't going to do anything... yet. But he knew that the thugs would soon come to get the keys and he needed to talk to the head butler of the estate first. "We have an... uh, interesting person coming to visit."

"What sort of person are we talking about?" Gotoh's voice was guarded, as it always was from years of training and working for the Zoldycks.

Zebro swallowed nervously. "This person does not have any murderous intent, not yet at least." There was no sound coming from the other end of the line so he continued. "I must go, but I thought it would be good to warn you. Something may happen."

"Very well. I will tell Silva-sama about this. Act based on the situation. When they come through the gate, call again." Gotoh hung up without any goodbye, most likely to go tell Silva about the guest that they would be having.

Zebro grimaced faintly, remembering his first day on the job. It was one of the few times he had personally talked to the head butler face to face.

"Remember," Gotoh had said. "You call for two reasons. One, someone is coming through the testing gate that is not a Zoldyck. Two, a possible threat is coming our way." And they both knew that there were very few things in existence that could be a threat to the entire Zoldyck family when they were together. The odds of one of these things coming to visit were slim to none.

Powerful nen-users avoided fights if possible, especially if they were on equal footing. No one wanted to challenge another when they were not sure of the outcome, unless there was good reason to. In this case, Zebro wasn't sure if he had called because of the first reason or both reasons.

Letting out a sigh, Zebro placed the phone back on the dial and walked out of the room, "accidentally" crashing into the group of thugs that stood outside of the office who were not-so-subtly waiting for Zebro.

"We want the key," the thug said. Inwardly this time, Zebro sighed, before putting on the scared façade he usually donned in front of the brutes. _At least they cut straight to the point,_ Zebro thought to himself. _I already have enough to worry about with the possible threat. _

"U-u-uh... what key?" Zebro was still amazed at the fact that no one had thought about how no one thought it was a trap. Mike usually ended up getting an extra meal at least once a week. Zebro would have thought for sure that someone would have figured out something by now.

"The key! You know, to the, uh, door. Right? There is a door right...?" The second half seemed to be more to the brute himself than anything, but Zebro still heard it.

"No! I won't give you the key!"

"Oh yeah?" A snicker. "We'll make you!"

_Here we go..._ The thugs advanced on Zebro while the latter just closed their eyes. J_ust take a few punches and pretend to give up and give them the key. I don't have time to worry about Mike's weight tonight. _

Approximately thirty seconds later, the thugs were congratulating each other and patting each other on the back, happy that they were able to complete the first step in entering the Zoldyck estate. Of course, it was only thirty more seconds until he was able to feel the vibrations through the ground of Mike sprinting through the ground towards the doors for an early dinner.

Once he heard the screams, Zebro got up, adding a few grunts and hisses to make it seem like the thugs actually did some damage. Looking to the left, he saw that most of the tourists had sprinted back towards the bus after hearing the screams.

_Clunk!_ Zebro's head turned towards the right just in time to see Mike's colossal paw dropping the bones into a neat little pile by the door. _I really should just get a trashcan and keep it there for Mike to put the bones in. It would save me a lot of wo-_ Another scream was heard, this time even more hysterical than when Mike dropped the skeletons in front of the door. Turning towards the noise, Zebro saw that the tourists in the bus were staring in horror over something across the road. Following their pointing fingers, he saw why.

The person that he had called Gotoh about had just stabbed the tourist guide, Kite something, in the back. But that wasn't what made Zebro's eyes widen in shock; it was the 2 four foot long red blades that were sticking out of the figure's arms that caused Zebro to quickly gesture towards the bus driver to leave as quickly as possible.

_It's been nice working here I guess,_ Zebro thought to himself as he saw the figure approaching. Looking now, he saw that it was in fact a girl. Upon closer inspection, he guessed that she was probably fifteen or sixteen.

"I'm going to cut straight to the chase." _Definitely a girl,_ Zebro thought to himself. "I want to go in. And don't try and feed me to the giant dog like you do to the others."

Zebro had to hold back at wince when she talked. Even if the girl was younger than master Illumi, her mannerisms showed that she was prepared to extract information at any means necessary- including bodily harm. Though her arms no longer had weapons coming out of them, she still had a presence that was as threatening as Illumi's when he was angry. The blood that was splattered over her face and legs did nothing to help calm Zebro's nerves.

"Also," the girl continued on, "as a show of good faith, I'll let you see what I look like," She pulled her hood down, revealing bone white skin and blood red eyes. Her black hair was short and messy, making Zebro think that she had cut it with a blade. The geometric designs from her arms and legs continued, climbing up her neck and around her face.

The eyes were not what Zebro gape at. Instead, Zebro couldn't help but stare at the piercings covering the girl's face. Three over the left brow, four on the right, and probably ten combined on both ears. Closer examination showed that there were various scars where previous piercings had most likely been ripped out. _Why does she continue to wear them if they get ripped out?_ Zebro thought, before dismissing the question. He had more important things to worry about than a person's choice in accessories.

Zebro knew the real intent for the girl to show her face. It wasn't a sign of trust. In fact, many would consider it the opposite. A killer does not show their face unless they're either stupid or extremely confident in their abilities. So confident in fact, that they do not fear if the authorities know what they look like and attempt to chase them down. That girl was ready to kill anything at any time with no remorse.

"These 'decorations' are actually doors, usually referred to as the Testing Gates," Zebro stated, knowing that trying to hide the fact would lead to his pointless death. "The first set weighs four tons, two for each door. The second is eight, the third, sixteen, and so on up to one hundred twenty-six tons for the seventh door. Anyone that enters through the doors is not attacked by Mike."

The girl nodded, staring at the door intently trying to judge her strength. Zebro was not sure what the girl's strength was, but he knew that she was strong. Looking at her aura, he guessed that she would open the fourth, possibly the fifth door, with the use of her nen.

He closed his eyes, knowing that resistance was futile and it would just lead to his death. When he heard footsteps walking away, his eyes opened in shock. He had no idea why the girl would kill the tourist guide and not him.

"You must be confused as to why I'm not going to kill you." Zebro stared at the girl, who had turned around to address him. "I want to talk to the Zoldycks, and I don't think that it would be in my best interest to kill their gateskeeper. That's money gone to waste. The tour guide on the other hand, she wasn't a direct employee of them. Thus, it would not have a negative impact on me if I killed her.

"Oh yeah, I guess I should tell you my name," she added on sheepishly, a grin appearing on her face. That almost made Zebro run away screaming. "My name's Akumi."

Akumi placed her hands out in front of the door, her hands resting on the first set. Activating Gyo, Zebro stared intently, trying to gauge the amount of aura that the girl had. Akumi pushed at the door, bracing one leg against the ground.

Zebro's eyes widened in shock, so much so that he almost lost his grip on gyo. The girl had opened... _one, two, three, four, five..._ Five doors without any nen! The girl was in a constant state of zetsu. Had Zebro not felt a slight ripple when the girl killed the tourist guide, he could have possibly believed that she had no knowledge of it.

Akumi held the doors open, staring up before making a sighing noise.

"I only managed to get five? Damn, I need to work on that." She stepped through the doors, pausing to look back behind her when there was only a sliver of space as an opening.

She let a wild grin spread across her face, releasing the full extent of her aura for a moment. The force was enough to push Zebro back a couple of steps.

After the door slammed closed, Zebro ran to his tiny office to call Gotoh. The Zoldycks were going to have an interesting day.

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**Thank you for reading the second chapter! As always, feedback is appreciated. As for those that followed this story for the Phantom Troupe, it will be a long time before they come into the mix, but they will be important. Also, even though this story follows the canon, Akumi will be following her own path, occasionnaly popping in on the main characters!**


	3. A tour

**Hello darlings! I am back with another chapter! I do not own any of the characters below except Akumi and random Oc's made for the plot. Shout out to my wonderful beta _breather_ who is an important part in making this story happen! Enjoy!**

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When Akumi entered the region of Dentora, she had no idea where she was headed. She went where her feet guided her. In this case, they took her to a small cafe where she saw people her own age sipping coffee and other beverages while clicking away at laptops, phones, and tablets.

"Welcome to Kukuroo Cafe!" a boy yelled who was running the cash register. He paused slightly, taking in the new customer's appearance before continuing. "We pride ourselves in being the number one rated cafe in the Kukuroo Mountain area!" Akumi gave him a quick once over. Around her age, maybe a bit older, optimistic, slightly taller than herself - not that that was saying much; the girl was barely five feet tall.

She walked up to him, quickly scanning the menu before taking her order. "Large peppermint hot tea along with a chicken and tomato pressed panini." After paying with money that she may or may not have taken from a cab driver that she had killed, Akumi went over to the bulletin board, looking for something that could spark her interest. A single faded flyer caught her attention, the word "_assassin" _catching her eyes.

She grabbed the flyer and stared at it for a moment before looking for a seat. On the way to a window seat, she grabbed a laptop that was sitting by itself at an empty table. _Idiot goes to the bathroom and doesn't even lock their computer. _The flyer was a few weeks old, the colorful words somewhat faded.

_**Kukuroo Mountain Tours of Infamous Assassin Family! **_Below the heading was a paragraph explaining the tours and the mysterious assassin family called the Zoldycks. A smirk quickly appeared on Akumi's face as she read the description. Opening up the internet on the computer that she had recently acquired, Akumi typed _Zoldyck family_ into the search bar.

As the psychopathic killer read the internet articles that appeared, one after another on the results page, her smirk grew. It continued to grow until a full out grin was on her face, and maniacal laughter was threatening to spill out of her mouth. Leaving her food and drink untouched- something that straight up never happened with her- Akumi closed the laptop and stuck it in her book bag, the grin never leaving her face. Humming a familiar tune, the girl stood up and skipped out of the restaurant.

Whenever Akumi skipped, shit was about to go down. And when it did, the girl would still be faintly humming the tune of _Ring Around the Rosie._

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After reading about the Zoldycks online, Akumi didn't feel like riding on a bus or cab to Kukuroo Mountain. She had too much energy and excitement built up in her to sit for an hour. Besides, Akumi was impatient and wanted to get there as soon as possible. So, she ran.

Running was something Akumi often found herself doing, more so after she had stopped following the teachings of her nen master (not that she followed many of his teachings anyways). Running was a way for her to sort and plan things out. It didn't take much concentration to avoid crashing into a tree and provided more safety than if she were sitting in a single place. Unfortunately, whenever she went into deep thought like this, it was easy for her not to pay attention to important details like possible enemies or traps.

Despite the fact that Akumi was a psychopath with no human remorse or morals when it came to the weak, she still had logic on her side. Sure, she might go a little off edge when she was having "fun", but she was always calculating, thinking of possible events that could happen.

After entering the small building that offered a map of Kukuroo Mountain and the surrounding area, Akumi briefly considered her options. She could go along with the tour group and get to the Zoldycks that way, or she could go ahead and visit them herself. Going to visit them herself would save her a good few hours but she knew that she still needed more information on the infamous family. On the other hand, if she stayed with the tour group, she might kill a few of them from annoyance or sheer boredom.

Looking around at the group of people waiting for a tour, Akumi made a noise at the back of her throat that was a mix between a hiss and a growl. Brutes made up half the group, all of them showing off their muscles and claiming how strong they were. She would definitely be in a killing mood once she got off that bus. She stood there for a moment, trying to figure out how best to kill them. _Maybe a few stabs? Ooh! What about chopping a few limbs off! It's been a while since I did that. _Akumi had to stop herself from grinning again.

The girl quickly snapped out of her daydream, walking out of the building. She still had thirty minutes before the tour group left. That should be enough to have some fun with one of the locals around the town.

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Pulling the hoodie up so that it covered her face, Akumi quickly changed her face into an expression that a poker player would be envious of. She was in a great mood.

The local that she had swiped off the streets and taken to an abandoned building had been simply perfect. The twenty-something year old male had been able to hold in the screams for ten minutes before he lost control. Most only lasted five minutes, dying before Akumi could really get started. This time, the man managed to survive the whole twenty with some _lovely_ screams before Akumi was forced to kill him so as to not miss the bus.

Snapping herself out of dreamland, Akumi quickly scanned the bus again, falling into the habit of routine five minutes scans. Her head never moved, but her eyes flew from one person to another, looking for anything suspicious. Akumi had only ever been caught off guard once and the result hadn't been pleasant for the offending party.

She knew that the tour guide was staring at her, not that she was really attempting to blend in. The tattoos and scars drew attention to herself, but it wasn't like she really cared. She was fairly confident that she would be able to kill anyone that would pose some threat to her by knowing her physical appearance.

The tour group reached their main destination: The Zoldyck Estate. Akumi watched as the wall surrounding the mountain came into view. _These people just love making obvious doors_, Akumi thought to herself. Mentally shrugging to herself, her gaze focused on the tour guide. Even if she felt mostly calm from her morning fun session, she still was feeling antsy. _Probably because I'm about to walk into a family of elite assassins, _she thought to herself. _I guess I should get rid of any killing moods before I get to the estate._ With that thought in mind, Akumi got off the bus and walked towards the tour guide, quietly starting to hum to herself.

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Akumi silently sighed to herself as she cut the tourist guide's head off. The kill had been messy and there had been too many witnesses.

'_But it was soo funny watching her head go flying!' _the inner voice inside of Akumi whined. Said inner voice had also told her to kill her master the first week after she moved in with him but she had showed self restraint; she had waited an entire year! Sometimes she worried if the voice in her head was more of a pain than it was worth.

'_Of course! Even if I sometimes cause you to have mood swings, no problem! I still act badass when needed! Admit it, you enjoy the conversations that you have with yourself. ' _Akumi sighed to herself, walking towards the gatekeeper who looked more or less fine considering that he had just seen someone get their head chopped off. No, she wasn't schizophrenic. She wasn't that crazy. The voice was nothing more than a little devil in her mind that gave advice on the situation, most of which was not advice as much as violent suggestions that would not be beneficial to her.

After getting some information from the gateskeeper, Akumi stared at the doors, silently calculating. She was pleasantly surprised when the man wasn't intimidated by her appearance like the tour guide was. A little freaked out, of course, but not like the tour guide who just about ran off into the woods. She supposed that he must be used to working with odd looking people, considering his employers were assassins.

She was confident enough in her abilities that she could easily open all the doors with nen. The question she had now was how many she could do without nen. She guessed five if she was going with her gut feeling, six if she was being optimistic. She had to keep a giggle from escaping her lips. This was simply _so entertaining! _She was very glad that she had decided to come visit the family.

Placing her hands out in front of her, Akumi braced herself against the ground before starting to push. The first three doors opened easily, the fourth one opened after a pause, and the fifth opened stubbornly, not liking that it was being forced open.

'_Come on. Just let a little bit o' energy out and you can do all of them!' _The voice in her head apparently wanted her to completely blow her cover. Sure, she had already killed the girl with her nen, but she had released very little, not enough to cause alarm. Releasing the amount of nen to open the last two doors would cause her to show too much of her power.

_No need to show them exactly how strong I am. _Looking upwards, she counted the doors again before exclaiming about how disappointed she was. _Let's just throw this man off his guard completely. _

Letting the doors slide back behind her, Akumi spared one last glance to the gatekeeper.

'_Come on! You can have just a little fun.' _Making a split second decision, Akumi decided to listen to the voice and let herself slip out of Zetsu, focusing her aura into ren and letting it run free for a single moment.

The doors closed behind her before she could see the face, but if the stench of fear that his aura gave off indicated anything, she had made a lasting impression. Directly after letting her aura spike, she felt numerous auras spike up, four of which that were more prominent than the rest.

_Lets have some fun Zoldycks._

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**Thank you for reading another chapter of Blood Blade! J**

**Just to clear up any confusion, _italics_ signify thoughts of Akumi. Italics with quotes around them shows that the voice in her head is speaking. Basically, '_this is inner dialogue with herself' _and _this is thoughts that she has. _I'll be glad to clear up any confusion that anyone has!**

**As always a favorite, follow, or review is always appreciated! **


	4. A cut

**Hello lovelies! Here's the newest chapter! Sorry that it's somewhat late; It was supposed to be finished Friday but I found this really good anime... and well, you can guess where that went. Shout out to _breather, _my beta reader for being fabulous as always. Anyways, enjoy!**

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A moment passed before the auras calmed down, but they were still there, just strong enough to stay near the front of Akumi's mind. _They're expecting me. _She knew that if they had wanted to hide their strength or numbers, they were definitely skilled enough to control their auras when they came into contact with another's.

_It's probably the gatekeeper that told. Oh well! More fun for me. _Her customary smirk appeared on her face, before she started walking at a normal person's rate. The aura she had released was just a small amount of what she was capable of. The Zoldycks knew that too.

_I wonder who's going to come greet me. Maybe I'll get to do a bit of fighting. _Right at that moment, she felt one of the strong nen presences disappear. To an outside observer, she gave no indication that she had noticed it, but if one looked closely, they could see a twinkle appear in her eyes. She was excited.

She continued walking, although her senses were on high alert. Moments later, she felt the missing presence re-appear, around 100 feet in front of her. Walking towards it, she emerged in a small clearing. Her eyes immediately focused on the figure standing in front of her. To the figure's left and right, there were short stone pillars followed by a wrought iron fence. The figure itself was someone who looked to be around 18, older than Akumi herself was. Staring for a moment, Akumi wasn't sure whether they were a boy or a girl, but then she remembered remembered reading that all the Zoldyck children were boys. This person was obviously not a butler, he was too strong for that. He had long black hair that reached mid-back and the biggest eyes Akumi had ever seen.

'_It'd be fun to stab those,'_ the voice in her head whispered. Obviously, she couldn't do that, as she wanted to stay on the Zoldycks' good side at the moment. Her eyes zoomed in on yellow pins that he had placed in his shirt, counting twenty in all. _Obviously a weapon. Most likely manipulation based nen, as it would otherwise be a bad choice in weapon. Oh dear, those are filled to the brim with his nen. It won't do if I get manipulated. _

A smirk appeared on Akumi's face before she began to speak.

"Hello there Zoldyck child! I am overjoyed to be graced with such an important person's presence!" She then curtsied dramatically, allowing her hair to fall forward and cover parts of her face. Her eyes focused on his face, searching for any change in his facial expression. His face gave no indication that he had even heard her, only giant eyes staring at her in a look that could only be described as sheer boredom.

'_Let's tease him a bit,' _the voice said. Akumi decided to follow it this time. Maybe she would be able to observe something about the person.

"I was wondering if a girl like you c-" Akumi's voice was cut off quickly as a pair of needles were thrown straight towards both of her eyes. Excitement quickly bubbled up on her features as she saw the opponent before her. He was definitely strong. And apparently didn't like being called a girl.

Her head jerked to the side, the needle on the left slicing a small cut into the flesh just below her right eye before burying itself into the tree behind her. She felt his nen seeping into her, trying to seize control. She guessed that she would probably be fine as long as she didn't have multiple pins placed directly into a single vein. The smirk on her face grew as she felt the blood dripping down her cheek.

"I am a boy," the figure beside her stated, his body in exactly the same position as before, only now there were two pins in his right hand.

"Well dear _boy, _what is your name?" Akumi replied, a slight mocking tone in her voice.

"Illumi."

"Someone doesn't like talking. Anyways, I was wondering if I could talk to your parents for a while." Another pin flew towards her, this time aimed for her left shoulder. She swayed to the right, the needle barely missing her bicep. "I'll take that as a no. Anything I could do to convince you otherwise?"

This time, five of the yellow projectiles cut through the air, all aimed at different pressure points on her head and neck. Raising one hand, she allowed two of them to scrape the back of her hand that wasn't covered by her glove before snatching them out of the air. The other three flew past her neck and gouged three long gashes into the side of her neck. Blood almost immediately started flowing from all five wounds. The injuries weren't enough to really worry Akumi, but she knew that she had lost enough blood.

* * *

Illumi's eyes narrowed as he watched the girl dodge all the needles he sent at her. He knew that she was letting them hit her on purpose. He just didn't know why yet. The nen that was spreading through her system wasn't enough to take her out. He needed to get some securely lodged in her to take control. His mind wandered to the communicator in his pocket. Just how long did it take for his father to judge the intruder?

* * *

Laughter threatened to spill out of Akumi's mouth as she observed the two needles in her hands. Focusing her vision into gyo, she saw that the spherical heads contained a concentrated amount of nen while the needle itself was only sparsely coated. She threw them into the the stone pillar beside Illumi, reinforcing them with a small amount of shu so that they would take out a chunk of the granite before lodging themselves in the cracks.

Another wave of pins barreled towards her, this time much faster than before. She quickly jumped out of reach, subtly moving closer to Illumi.

"Apparently someone doesn't like sharing their toys." His facial expression still didn't change, still showing no signs of interest even though she knew he was carefully observing every movement. _He's been trained well, _she thought before speaking again. "Now I get to show off a little."

Her eyes darkened, going from a dark red to near black. The blood flowing from the wounds on her throat stopped dripping, raising off of her skin and into the air like whips. The blood dripping from her right wrist quickly spread out into a thin layer covering her entire hand. As another needle flew towards her, she jerked her head to the side, letting it rip out two of the piercings in the cartilage of her right ear. _GODDAMMIT THAT HURT!_ she thought. Tearing one out hurt pretty badly, but damn, those felt like a bitch getting ripped out. Immediately, the blood flowing from her ear floated up, stretching into two more whips.

Akumi charged towards him, eyes full of excitement as her whips flew around her. Illumi jumped to the right, getting cut on the arm by one of the whips from her ear. He threw pins towards her feet attempting to pin her feet to the ground. Two of them connected, holding her right foot down as she moved her other foot out of the way.

"Fuck, you're going to pay for that." She felt the his nen quickly course through her bloodstream. Concentrating on her foot, she forced the blood flowing in it to stop. _Three minutes before my foot becomes useless. _Stopping blood circulation was no small feat, and Akumi let the blood covering her hand fall to the ground so that she could concentrate more on her foot.

Illumi waited for the nen to take effect. Seeing the blood on her hand return to normal, he threw a dozen needles straight towards her, wanting to end the battle and impatient for the call. He assumed that he wasn't going to get one, so it was time to get serious.

Akumi was able to catch six of the needles with her five whips, moving her body around to avoid to avoid the other five. Her foot protested, sending painful spasms that warned her to not move it again if she wanted to keep her tendons intact.

_RIIIIIIINNNNGGGGG! _A shrill noise cut through the forest, shattering the atmosphere of the fight. Immediately, Illumi straightened from his fighting position and answered the call. Akumi, seeing that the fight was over, stooped down over her foot and yanked the needles out. She knew that she had lost as soon as the pins had been stuck in her foot, preventing her from moving. Three minutes would have been more than enough time for Illumi to stick more pins in her, completely incapacitating her. Letting her control on her blood go, the whips fell to the ground, back to normal blood. She sat down, turning her attention towards the leg that had the assassin's nen in it. Concentrating, she closed her eyes and focused on the nen-infused blood from the needles. She knew that Illumi wouldn't kill her, as he threw no fatal blows that were difficult to avoid. Sure, some of those needles could have killed her, but she could see that he had pulled his throws.

The blood contaminated with Illumi's nen was pulled towards the holes that the needles had left behind while the rest was held in place. Seventy long seconds passed as Akumi separated the blood, finally drawing all of it out of her foot and letting it drop to the ground. _Blood loss of 10%, nothing to worry about. _She felt slightly colder from the blood loss, but nothing that required immediate attention.

"I'll take you to my father." Illumi's words pulled Akumi's attention from her wound to him. "My father and grandfather will talk to you. A word of advice: they do not have the patience that I do. They will smash you like a bug without hesitation. Follow me." Without pausing to see if she would follow, Illumi disappeared into the forest, bounding over trees and rocks at full speed.

Wordlessly, Akumi got up and followed him, wounds forgotten at the challenge of a race.

* * *

A few seconds passed as Akumi raced to catch up with Illumi. She guessed that she had thirty seconds to pass him before they got to the estate. Green and brown passed by her in a flash, her vision narrowing to the long hair of Illumi in front of her. They flew over the terrain, focused only on the mansion that loomed in the distance. A snarl grew on Akumi's face as she saw that the gap between her and Illumi stayed at a constant two meter distance.

'_Come on, just put a little nen in your feet. Beat that expressionless bastard,' _the voice in her head whispered. _Secrecy be damned, I'm not going to lose to him. _Nen flowed through Akumi's legs, enabling her to jump in leaps and bounds. It was somewhat reckless to show this much nen, but she knew that they had already seen enough with her fight with Illumi. A little bit more wouldn't kill her. Hopefully…

_Two seconds to destination. _They were now side by side, neither one showing the physical strain that they were putting on their bodies.

_One sec- _

"FUUCK!" Akumi's running was abruptly halted as she felt a single pin ram itself into her foot, causing her to fall face first into the ground. Ripping it out, she threw it at the closest living thing, in this case being Illumi, eyes full of murder. Illumi deftly caught it, his expression still one of absolute boredom.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT YOU GODDAMNED BASTARD?! I WAS ABOUT TO BEAT YOU!" Akumi looked down at her foot, waiting for blood to flow so that she could throw it at the smug bastard's face.

"Racing? How childish is that?" Akumi gaped at Illumi, ready to rip his head off. "Your foot isn't going to start bleeding. I didn't hit any main blood vessels."

Knowing that he was right, Akumi stood and raised her hand, ready to rip out all of the piercings she had left so she could '_rip the eyes out of the smug bastard's face.' _Before she could follow the _wonderful_ advice given to her, two figures approached.

Slow clapping could be heard from the older of the two, who was slightly stooped over and had a sign that read, 'a kill a day'. The man beside him stood in silence, stoically staring at Akumi. She immediately slipped back into a state of ten, aura moving silently across her body.

"You put on quite the show Illumi," the older one stated, a small smile appearing on his face.

"But you need to be more careful with those pins. Throwing them at such a noticeable place was not the smartest choice. It was obvious that those were there for a reason." The taller one said, his eyes never leaving Akumi's. "The girl did well holding up against you. Though she could work on paying attention to her surroundings. Getting hit in the feet was a careless error on her part."

Akumi's eyes narrowed slightly at the comment, annoyed at the fact that she was being lectured, even though she knew he was right. She knew that there was no point in showing hostility, so she relaxed her stance, putting on a slight bored expression.

"I assume you are the father and grandfather of Illumi," she stated.

"You are correct," The older man said, pointing at her. "I'm Zeno Zoldyck and this is Silva, Illumi's father. I must say, when Gotoh came and told me we were having a visitor, I was quite excited. It had been a while since we'd had someone come, so I sent Illumi to welcome you."

_Welcome me? That bastard tried to skewer my eyes out. _

"So," Zeno continued, "why are you here? I do hope it isn't to kill us because it would be a shame to waste such good talent."

Akumi paused, not expecting such a calm welcoming in comparison to her meeting with Illumi. "I was wondering if I could stay with you guys for a while."

Silva's eyes widened slightly at that, and Illumi had to prevent himself from raising his eyebrows. Meanwhile, Zeno stared at her for a moment before letting out a chuckle, his expression showing how entertained he was.

"Well girl, you certainly would make this place more interesting." Zeno replied, turning around to walk inside the manor. "Follow me. We can talk in the house." Silva followed, walking side by side with Zeno as Illumi trailed slightly behind. After a pause, Akumi followed too.

* * *

"So, tell us what your name is." The four of them were seated around a room. Illumi stood by the window, leaning against the wall. Silva had taken the giant armchair in the center of the room and Zeno, who had just spoken, was sitting in the large sofa to the right, leaving Akumi to stand awkwardly in the middle of the room. Sighing, she sat down on the coffee table beside her, praying that it wasn't anything important..

"Akumi Chisio." She stated, trying to play it cool despite the fact that they had just seen her fall on her face and cuss Illumi out.

"Ah, quite a fitting name for you, considering your nen," Zeno said. "A name that means graceful killer and the word blood. How nice. What about telling us a bit about yourself?"

"Well, I'm sixteen. I learned nen two years ago, and finished my basic training around a year ago."

"Hmm, tell us more about your nen. It seems interesting."

"As you could see, I am a manipulator who controls the physical properties of blood. I assume that gatekeeper told you, but I have different forms of control. I can change my blood into blades, whips, and shields, as well as projectiles, though that's dangerous because I lose blood quickly that way."

"I have a question," Silva said, interrupting Zeno just as he was about to speak. "We were told you killed one of the tour guides, yet we did not feel your presence until you slipped out of zetsu when you entered our property. Why did we not feel the killing intent?"

A small smirk appeared on Akumi's face. "Well normally, you know, you release killing intent whenever you're about to kill someone, warning that person. You release it because you go in with the mindset that you're about to kill them, but what if you don't think of it as killing them? To me, that girl's death was simply me tying up loose ends as well as making things easier for me."

Silva saw the logic behind it, annoyed that he had never thought to try it before. "Is that how you normally kill people?"

"No, but this time I wanted to hide my presence for a little bit longer, so I killed her with no killing intent. Usually I just let them feel my killing intent. It's somewhat difficult to not send it out."

A lapse of silence followed in which Zeno regarded the girl that had come to visit them. Her sudden appearance had surprised them, and Silva had thought about telling Illumi to just kill the her before Zeno had intervened. The fight had been interesting. The whole family had been gathered around Milluki's monitors, watching the clash between the two. Though the girl was three years younger than Illumi, they were almost equally matched.

Zeno knew it was a risk to let the girl stay, but he was sure that he would be able to overpower her if needed. A quick glance at Silva showed that the same though process was going through his head. Another look, this time aimed at Illumi, revealed a barely perceptible nod, showing that he was also okay with her, though Zeno knew that it was mainly because he wanted to spar with her again.

"I assume that you don't have a problem with killing people," Zeno began. "If you want to stay with us, you will kill many people. We don't usually do this, but I have a feeling that you would liven up this place. Illumi is too serious and Kikyo needs another female in the household besides the butlers. You will go through the same training as our children, and you will be treated as one. You may leave at any point, but if you betray us in any way, we will hunt you down and kill you."

Akumi nodded, expecting the conditions that Zeno had said. "Yes, I understand. Anything else?"

"One more thing," Zeno said. "You said you learned nen two years ago. Who was it that taught you? Your parents? A master? We cannot have anyone coming here in search of you."

Akumi let out a laugh, one where anyone would hear the madness that was embedded in it. "Oh, that's quite simple. They're dead. I killed them."

* * *

**Fight scene! WOOHOO! I'd love to hear any criticisms you guys have about that. This chapter took forever because I kept re-wording stuff with the fight scene. I want my chapters to average at around 3,000 words, so I might take a little bit longer per chapter!**

**Favorites, follows, and reviews are appreciated as always! Thank you to those that have. Did anyone guess her nen? It goes off of Deadman Wonderland mechanics. Next chapter will be backstory and the start of the first arc! The introduction is almost done! **

**Question for you readers! Who wants to guess what her limitation and vows are? Anyone that guesses correctly will get bragging rights! **

**Thank again for reading! Feedback is welcome!**


	5. A memory

**Hello dear readers! Please enjoy this chapter of blood blade! (published Oct 13, 2014)**

**Note that italics that are separated with a line break are flashbacks.**

* * *

The silence that followed Akumi's statement was an awkward one. Illumi, who had been staring out the window feigning disinterest, turned his head towards her at that statement, a single eyebrow raised in a questioning look. Zeno and Silva stared at the girl for a moment, before Zeno burst out into laughter.

"Well girl," Zeno began, "It does seem that you will add some life with us. Please do refrain from scaring the younger ones too much." With that, Zeno rose from his seat and the other people in the room followed.

Silva began to speak. "Come with me, we will be going down to the basement. Illumi too."

Akumi followed Silva as he walked out of the room, staring at Illumi's black hair as they descended the stairs at the end of the hall. She knew that it was useless to ask where they were going, as she would find out in a few moments.

Silva led the group through several corridors, finally stopping at a wooden door.

"We will be doing nen and combat training first," he stated, opening the door to reveal a large room. Akumi couldn't help but let out a small whistle. _They just want to hit the ground running, don't they? _The room itself was very modern in comparison to the Victorian-esque decor that the rest of the mansion was in. Bright lights lit the room up and one wall was covered in mirrors. The other three walls held racks upon racks of weapons.

Illumi walked over and stood in the middle of the floor, which was covered in mats. Following, Akumi stood facing him, while Silva stood off to the side.

"Focus your aura into ren and hold it for as long as possible. The goal is 4 hours. Illumi is currently able to hold it for longer than that. Begin!"

Immediately, the room swelled with nen. Akumi stood for a moment, gauging her strength. _I can probably last that long. It's been a while since I tested it, but last time I checked, I could hold it for four and a half hours._ She stood in silence, studiously observing the nen in the room.

Illumi's was a dark purple and released toxic waves that would have made someone with a weaker stomach lose their dinner. Akumi's aura wasn't much better. It was a dark red color that flew around carelessly, giving off a wavelength that would make anyone else cower in fear. A grin appeared on Akumi's face as she saw the effect that it had on the Zoldyck child. Immediately, his eyes narrowed and the muscles in his jaw tightened.

Another second passed, before Illumi disappeared suddenly from her sight, the body that had been in front of her vanishing into thin air. Feeling a presence to her right, Akumi jumped out of the way, right as a clawed hand sliced through the air, right where her stomach was. Without pausing in his motion, Illumi swung his right foot, aiming a kick towards her neck that would have taken her head off had she not dodged it.

"When we do nen training," Silva began, looking bored as Akumi narrowly avoided a punch to the stomach, "you are also expected to do hand-to-hand combat. No weapons around. If you drop your ren, you immediately lose."

Without a word, Akumi began to fight back. Her right hand, which had been propping her against the floor, shot out towards Illumi. A hand reached out and grabbed her wrist, flipping Akumi over his head. Mid-arc, Akumi wrenched her wrist out of his hand, sending a kick towards his torso.

The blow, reinforced with ko, caused Illumi to skid across the floor even though he had guarded against it. He sprang into the air, aiming for Akumi's head as he fell back to the ground. Quickly, Akumi spread her nen out, focusing it on her spine and hands as she caught the foot that was aimed for her. Before Illumi could recover, Akumi threw him to the ground, leaving a body shaped indention behind. She stepped away from Illumi, who laid face up, staring at the ceiling.

"Take that!" Akumi said, not caring in the bit that she sounded immature. She turned around, ready to walk away, when she felt the massive killing aura thrown at her. Pivoting, she made a quick one-eighty, just in time to feel Illumi's body crash into her, pushing her to the floor. A clawed hand immediately found its way to her neck, the claws pressing just hard enough so that she couldn't speak.

"First rule," Illumi began, crouching over her with a bored expression. "Never turn your back on an opponent who has not admitted defeat. " He removed his hand, allowing her to speak.

"Well here's my rule," Akumi said leaning forwards slightly. "Hold down your opponent's legs when you pin them to the ground." Illumi was allowed a single moment during which his eyes widened before Akumi's foot connected with his face, causing him to fly up in the air.

They came together, two forces clashing together in a battle of speed. Both now had hands that were claws, and it was a battle to see who could get the first blow in. The two bodies flew across the room as one person tried to get an upper hand on the other. The first slip up came when Akumi tripped on the seam in the mat. It wasn't much of a slip, but there was a stutter in her attack, leaving Illumi a single opening. Taking it, he kicked forward, throwing all his strength into it.

Akumi barely had time to sloppily move her nen to guard her stomach before the blow connected, causing her to fly against the wall. She closed her eyes, waiting for the impact, knowing that it would hurt to crash against the mirror. Her eyes snapped open in surprise when she felt a hand grab her shoulder, and barely had a moment to think, _you sneaky bastard,_ before her head was slammed to the ground with enough force to knock her out.

* * *

_A fourteen old Akumi flew against a wall, hard enough to leave her with a few cracked ribs. Her vision swam in front of her, watching as the figure in front of her walked away, looking back once before turning a corner to leave her in an alley as her life seeped out from her skin._

* * *

Akumi woke up to find herself chained against the wall, shackles holding her arms and legs in place. Without opening her eyes, she took stock of the surroundings. It felt like she was up against a giant wall. She still had on her normal clothes and felt something- most likely blood- drip down her face. Opening her eyes, she looked down at herself. Everything looked normal except for the various wires that were hooked up to a box that looked suspiciously like a generator.

There was a pair of legs behind the generator, and when Akumi looked upwards, she saw that Illumi stood in front of it, fiddling with some wires.

"Morning," she said brightly, contradictory to the voice in her head that wanted to slap the bastard in the face. "What's next on the fun list?"

Illumi continued clicking away at a screen in front of him, acting like he hadn't heard the girl.

"Hello…? Mr. Blank Face, I would like to know." Another moment of silence passed, before Illumi began to speak.

"We will be doing pain resistance training." Without another word, he flipped a switch and Akumi could barely open her mouth before the electricity flowed through her system.

* * *

_The injured girl sat against the wall- for how long- she didn't know. Time seemed to stop and start as she drifted in and out of consciousness. For every minute that passed, she felt more and more energy leave her even though she knew she wasn't bleeding heavily from any wound. It had only been a single punch to the gut, but it had been enough to send her flying._

_Her vision started blacking out again, something that had happened several times in the time that she sat against the wall. The exact same thing happened this time, except she saw a hunched over figure hurrying towards her. A single whisper slipped out of her mouth before she slumped down, unconscious again._

* * *

She didn't pass out after the first time. She merely clenched her mouth and stared daggers into Illumi, thinking of all the ways that she could cause bodily harm.

"Again."

* * *

_Akumi woke up, this time in a bed. Before she could fully make sense of what happened, the man in front of her started speaking, rushing the words out._

"_You need to close your eyes and relax. Your aura is flowing out and it will kill you if you don't control it." Akumi stared in confusion at him before he continued on. "Focus. Imagine the energy around you becoming calm and flowing, like a river."_

_Wordlessly, Akumi followed the old man's instructions, closing her eyes and focusing on the aura around her. Within seconds, the mist around her focused into a calm cloud that moved slowly around her. _

"_Amazing," the man whispered, eyes wide as he saw the girl master Ten in a matter of seconds. He moved from the foot of the bed to beside Akumi, a small smile on his mouth before he asked her, "My name is Izo Kasuse. I will be your nen master."_

* * *

"More."

* * *

"_Akumi, you don't need to continue practicing ten for this long. Don't strain yourself."_

_Akumi had to hold back a sigh as she stopped meditating. It had been over a month that she had been practicing nen and her master was already holding her back. 'Only practice an hour at the max. Don't push yourself. Go at your own pace.' The old man wasn't a strong nen user, she had realized, but she did not know that his weakness was a result of his lack of ambition. He didn't push himself and went slower than a snail's pace during training._

_Nodding, the girl got up and left, headed to the forest that was near her house. _

_She silently seethed as she thought of her benevolent master. He was holding her back, so she had to take things into her own hands. Entering the clearing, she sat down on the ground and basked in the sunlight while staying in a state of ren. After another two hours of this, she ran laps around the town in a state of zetsu. Her master wouldn't train her properly, so she would have to do it herself._

* * *

Illumi unlatched Akumi from the wall, ignoring the glares that she sent him. The training had gone on for two hours, until Illumi decided that she had done enough.

"You were able to withstand nearly double of the energy that we started with. Good job."

Before she could flip him off, the door to the room opened, revealing Zeno. He stepped in and motioned for Illumi, who followed him as he stepped out of the room. As soon as the door closed, Akumi's knees gave out on her, before which had stayed working through sheer willpower. The training had continued for two hours. Akumi had never hated two hours so much as when she was chained to that goddamned wall being electrocuted.

Illumi and Zeno re-entered their room.

"It's time for you to meet the rest of the family," Zeno began, unaffected by the smell of burnt flesh in the room.

_Are they batshit crazy like your lovely son here? _The thought almost made Akumi loose the pokerface that she had, but a look from Illumi managed to keep her under control.

"Follow me," Zeno said, turning around and walking out the door. Akumi followed, ignoring the pain, shifting her face back into an emotionless mask. The trio walked up the stairs, finally arriving in the main area of the mansion. There sat the entire family and their children. Silva and who Akumi assumed to be his wife sat on the sofa while their children sat in the floor. Illumi moved to stand beside the other three children. The first was a white haired boy who was engrossed in playing with his train set. Another was on the chubby side, clicking away on a laptop that he had in his lap. The last one was dressed in a girl's kimono, playing with a simple paper fan.

"Zoldycks," Zeno began, still standing beside Akumi who faced the rest of the family. Immediately, everyone's attention focused on Zeno. Even the younger kids paused in their playing to stare at the grandfather. "We will be having someone stay with us for a while. She will be participating in training with us. Introduce yourselves."

Silva spoke up first. "I am Silva Zoldyck. Head of the family."

His wife followed, the laser on her face staying locked on Akumi. "I am Kikyo."

The boy dressed as a girl went next. "I'm Kalluto."

"Killua!" the white haired boy yelled, the only one that seemed to have a personality in the family.

Illumi didn't bother to look at the girl, eyes still focused on Zeno. "Illumi." Without pausing, he threw a needle at the one typing on his laptop, who had not paused when Zeno had begun to speak. The boy paused in his typing, startled when he saw the needle stuck in the ground beside his foot.

"Introduce yourself," said Illumi, still wearing his expressionless mask.

The boy seemed dazed, not really hearing what his older brother had said. Impatient, Illumi threw another pin, this one flying directly past the boy's nose.

"Why do I have to introduce myself to that crazy hag?" Everyone's eyes flew to the girl in question, whose face was still a calm mask. Akumi tilted her head slightly before letting a grin appear on her face.

"Sweetie," she began, eyes opening to reveal her entire iris. Killua and Kalluto both took a step back, even at the small ages of four and seven, knowing that things had taken a turn for the dangerous. "I don't believe I heard you correctly. What was it that you called me?" Her aura lost it's smoothness, swirling into chaos that surrounded Akumi like a miniature hurricane. Added to her appearance which consisted of fried hair, scars, and dried blood, Milluki was unable to hold back a small whimper that crawled itself out of his throat.

Akumi stood there, waiting for a response, even though given the child's condition, it was highly unlikely she would get one. Silva moved his gaze from the girl to Illumi, who immediately got the message. He plucked a single pin out of his clothes, throwing it straight towards the girl's right eye.

Without taking her eyes off of Milluki, Akumi caught the pin between her index and middle finger a hairlength from her pupil. She tucked it into her pocket and switched her gaze to Illumi. Immediately, she slipped back into a normal state, letting her nen return to its calm flow of ten.

"My name's Akumi. And I'm sixteen." The second sentence was directed towards Milluki, who still was staring petrified at the girl. "I'll be staying here for a while. I am someone who has a very short temper, so please avoid annoying me. Otherwise I might attack you, and I always kill when I get into a fight."

Without another word, the girl turned around and walked out, leaving the other Zoldycks to sit and take in their first impressions of Akumi Chisio.

Several seconds later, as Akumi was climbing up the stairs to find a room to stay in, she was able to hear the distinct voice of Zeno Zoldyck, who had began laughing after she had left the room.

* * *

**YAYY! Chapter 5 is done! Once again, thanks to everyone that favorites, follows, and reviews this story. I still want to hear your theories on the vows and limitations, as well as any other theories for the plot. Also, as always, thank you _breather_, who beta's this story and deals with all of the typos I make!**


	6. A rebellion

**Okay you guys, I'm not gonna delay your reading, there's an important note at the end of this. At least read the first half. Meanwhile, enjoy: (Published 10/25/2014)**

* * *

Life for Akumi while living with the Zoldycks slowly fell into a loose routine. Wake up, eat, train, sleep. Sometimes there were other things thrown in, like no food that day, but overall, Akumi's life consisted of training and killing. And scaring the Zoldyck children.

It had been an entire month before Milluki was able to stay in the same room as her, six months before he stopped flinching when she came near, and he still couldn't look at her in the eye. Five goddamned years and the boy couldn't maintain eye contact. It had been three years before he had directly talked to her and that had only been because of an accident.

Milluki, having recently turned seventeen, had come back from upstairs where he had enjoyed eating different dishes for the past several hours. Arriving at the door outside of his room, the boy had paused, able to hear the click clack of a keyboard. He knew that no one paid him any attention in the house, but they still never went into his room. None of them had ever had a reason to go in.

Reaching, he grabbed the doorknob and pulled the door open, eyes going to the figure that was sitting at his computer tapping away. He couldn't see who it was, but nonetheless, he walked in, slamming the door behind him.

The person on the computer did not flinch, giving no indication that they had even heard him slam the door. Milluki reached out and grabbed one of the less rare dolls off of his shelf, aiming for the head of the intruder. Usually, one would think that considering the people he lived with, Milluki would know better than to throw something at someone who was in the house, but Milluki did not think in the long term, which in this case was considered anything past throwing the doll. All he wanted to do was get their attention while taking his frustration out on them.

"Get out of my room!" He yelled, throwing the doll in a high arc.

He watched as the doll soared through the air towards the intruder's head. A foot from the person's head, the doll was suddenly cut through the middle, the two halves separating and falling to the floor. Milluki realized his mistake the instant the doll was cleaved in two. There was only one person who had the ability to do that without getting up and moving their hands- which were still clicking away at the keys. He had just thrown something at Akumi, the blood manipulator. The blood manipulator who currently had a spike pointing at his eye.

"Milluki," the boy's blood ran cold upon hearing the voice. It sounded just as it had when he was fourteen. "It's been three years and you've never said a word to me. But now, our first decent conversation consists of you yelling at me? I thought you were smarter than that." The boy in question was stock still, remembering the aura that she had shown three years ago.

"Oh well," she said, getting up off his chair and turning around. She was still exactly the same as before, except the number of scars marring her flesh. His father had made her continuously pull out the different piercings so that she would no longer be distracted by pain when she ripped them out. The whip pointed at him moved away from his eye, changing its shape into a sphere that floated beside her head.

"I'm done with your computer. I just needed to look up a few things about some people." Milluki's eyes stayed glued to the sphere of blood beside her. It was only the size of an apple, but he knew that it was harder than rock.

"I know that you're curious as to what I looked up, but I can't have you seeing that. Unfortunately, I know that you would see what I was looking up no matter what I did, so I believe that the only way that I'll be able to keep it a secret is to destroy the evidence." Immediately upon hearing her words, Milluki knew what was going to happen. He jumped out of the way as the sphere flew past him, slamming into the computer that was behind him. The ball continued to fly around the room, destroying anything electronic that was in there. After a few minutes of this, the ball came to rest right beside Akumi, who had not moved the entire time. She had several cuts from debris flying around and was wearing the same smile that she had put on when she had met him. Gulping, he looked away, not daring to say a word about what just transpired.

Satisfied, the now nineteen year old girl walked out of the room, sure that Milluki would never mention this to the family.

* * *

Though the younger siblings knew that Akumi was with them, they barely saw her around the house. The girl would only make appearances during dinner time, and they would occasionally see her in one of the training rooms. Knowing that the girl usually fought to kill in training, they avoided her at all costs, scared to look at her in the eye unless she was speaking- which was as rare as hearing Illumi talk.

Kalluto was the child who had seen Akumi the most besides Illumi, who was the one that usually trained with her. Despite her personality, Kikyo still tried to talk to Akumi due to her being one of the only females in the house. The girl would always be polite- or as polite as a psychopath could be, staying with Kikyo and in turn Kalluto for tea and other affairs, but she was always closed off, not telling them anything personal about herself. Even though Kalluto had spent countless hours with the girl and his mother over tea, the only thing he really knew about her personal life was that she had killed her parents and previous nen master.

Kalluto had only spent a single training session with the girl, and he had only been nine at the time. He had been working on making his paper fly towards opponents and Illumi had made Akumi try it.

"Why do I have to help the child train? Why not you?" Akumi wasn't happy about helping Kalluto, and Kalluto was already starting to panic about attacking her. He didn't want to annoy her in any way.

"This is also training for you Akumi," Illumi said, his face never changing from its bored expression. Kalluto knew that Illumi was taking a huge risk. If Akumi decided to attack Kalluto because she was annoyed, Illumi wasn't sure if he could hold her down by himself.

He continued. "You will let the paper cut you and you must stop the blood from flowing from the cuts. We will see how many you can stop from bleeding. Please begin Kalluto."

The first few times he had choked, losing control of the paper before it was able to hit her. On the fourth try, the paper hit her directly on the right shoulder, slicing a deep cut. The girl narrowed her eyes at Kalluto, before putting a bored expression back on her face.

The next few tries created cuts all over her body. By the time Kalluto was able to accurately hit the girl, she was covered from head to toe in injuries, but none of them were bleeding. Pausing in his attacks, he studied the girl's aura. His eyes widened slightly, seeing the amount of aura that she was using in order to stop all the cuts from bleeding. He knew that he had severed several arteries and even then, the girl still showed no outward signs of fatigue.

"What are you doing?" She growled, eyes staring at Kalluto. "I'm still waiting for something to actually hurt me." His eyes narrowed, staring intently at the girl before moving his gaze to her right eye. He raised his fan and waved it around, moving the now red paper in a circle before making it fly towards her face. He was at the end of his patience.

The paper flew for her eye, creating a sharp point. Upon realizing it's destination, Akumi's aura flared up, releasing a wave of madness. Immediately, the blood coated paper froze in mid-air. Kalluto's eyes grew wide as he tried to get the paper to move, but it wouldn't budge. Staring in horror, he watched as the paper came together, creating a large spike that was pointed at his face. The pieces of paper slowly fell to the ground, leaving the blood to float in the air.

He realized just how dangerous of a position he was in. When he had created all those cuts, her blood had been splattered onto the paper. The blood that _she was able to manipulate. _Akumi had effectively turned his own weapon against him.

"Look here you _little fucker." _She said, the last two words coming out in a hiss. "I said that so that you should attack better. Not that you could _fucking poke my eye out._ If it ever happens again, I will rip you apart bit by bit and keep you alive until you look like a lump of meat."

Spinning on her heel, she walked out of the room, never letting go of her control on her nen. The door slammed closed and the blood fell to the ground, splattering onto the ground and on Kalluto's kimono. Shakily, Kalluto lowered himself to the ground, eyes never leaving the blood stain. He had a deep fear of Akumi Chisio.

* * *

Akumi reached into the secret compartment of her drawer, pulling out the collection of needles that she had collected over the years from Illumi. She had two that were still filled to the brim with his nen while the others were mostly empty. Taking one of the two that were full, she plunged it into the vein on her neck.

The effect was immediate, causing her to slump over slightly. _Your nen has gotten nastier over the years Illumi. _Taking a deep breath, she let the nen course through her body. She had started this a year ago in order to become immune to Illumi's manipulation. The first time she had put the needle in her, the effect hadn't been pretty and she pulled it out before even a fraction of its contents had been emptied. Now, she was able to handle the entire needle without too many complications.

Getting up, she left her room, headed towards the training room where she sparred with Illumi. Arriving, she realized that she had an audience today. Both Silva and the child with white hair, Killua, were there. She had to stare at the twelve year old, noticing the dark circles underneath his eyes. _Brat didn't go to sleep last night. Wonder what kept him up. _

"Illumi," she said, the boy in question talking to Killua. "What's with the audience today?"

"We thought that it would be good to show Killua other styles of fighting." Silva replied.

"You'll be sparring with one of the butlers," Illumi added, opening another door to reveal one the butlers. "Please refrain from doing anything too crazy."

"Come on," Akumi complained. "A little torture before killing someone is always fun."

"But an hour of it is pretty long."

"Fine, any other requests?"

"No nen."

Akumi paused at that, staring in question at the child who wasn't paying attention to their conversation.

"You mean, he's going to be the head of the family and the child hasn't learned nen? Are you being delusional? His younger brother started when he was half his age! That boy is twelve and he hasn't started!"

"Training the head of the family is different. Don't worry, we're going to start next week. Now, please get the fight started."

A small sigh escaped Akumi's lips. _Illumi never lets me have any real fun when the other children are watching. _

Her attention moved to the butler that was standing on the other side of the mat. He looked strong enough to earn a little interest and he had a nice ten if she was being generous. Nothing to worry about.

Without preamble, she ran forward, trying to gauge how much she could play around with him before she would kill him. He dodged left, not noticing the fist that was headed for his face.

The blow sent him flying against a wall and left a small crater. Akumi's signature smirk appeared. Even without the use of nen, she had sent him flying. The five years of training were finally paying off.

"Now Killua," Illumi began. "What was Kuri's main mistake here?"

"He wasn't paying attention to his surroundings and missed the follow up to the first attack."

"Correct, Killua."

Looking over at the boy while waiting for the butler, Kuri, to get up, Akumi took particular note of his expression as his brother praised him. It could have been her imagination, but she swore she could see something that was... fear? on the boy's face. It took her a moment to find the right word, and in that time, Kuri had gotten up and was throwing a right hook right at her face.

She didn't have time to react, as watching Killua had distracted her. The blow, reinforced with nen, connected with her right cheek. She flew across the room, crashing into the set of weights in the far corner. The sheer shock of being hit had been enough to prevent her from raising her defenses, causing her to take the full impact of the force.

Looking up, she noticed the raised eyebrow of Illumi as well as the gaping mouth of Killua. Getting up, she ignored the broken ribs and dislocated shoulder, staring at Kuri. _No nen Akumi, yeah fuck you too Illumi. You thought yesterday was bad? This will haunt you. _

The murderous intent exploded from Akumi, swirling all over the room. Her vision zeroed in on the butler. Nothing else mattered. Not the child, not Illumi, not Silva, and sure as hell not the rules.

The blood flowing from the wounds on her stopped moving, gliding towards her right hand. Hardening, the blood formed two claws, sharper than even the nen claws that she usually used. She pounced forward, grasping onto the right bicep of Kuri. Immediately, the blood wrapped around his shoulder, moving downwards to his wrist.

Releasing him, she backed up, letting the blood falling from her leg fly up and separate from each other, creating little spheres of blood the size of marbles. A flick of her hand caused the blood to fly towards Kuri. Upon impact, each one spread outward until a spider web-like pattern covered his entire body.

Kuri stared at her in horror, knowing that nothing he could do would save him.

"Look," she said, practically spitting the words out. "I will kill you. Slowly and painfully. First I'll get rid you your arms, then your legs, and finally your body. Don't worry though. I'll keep it so that you won't die of blood loss. You'll be stuck as a head until your brain turns to mush from oxygen deprivation. Then I'll smash your head into itself."

She did exactly what she said she would.

* * *

Silva left after the pieces had been disposed of. Once his father was gone, Illumi grabbed Akumi and started pulling her out of the room. Right before they passed through the door, Akumi noticed that Killua was staring straight at her, scared to see what else the girl could do.

As Illumi was dragging her out the door, Akumi smiled at Killua and gave a small wave. Even across the room, she could hear him gulp, before getting his body in control and putting on a blank expression.

The door slammed shut before Akumi could do anything else to scare the child. Illumi continued to drag her out of the corridor and up the stairs to one of the sitting rooms.

"Something wrong Illu-chan?" Akumi was very glad at that moment that Illumi was a manipulator and not an emitter that could shoot nen out of his eyes.

"I told you two things. Don't play and don't use nen. And you did both." His eyes were narrowed, still staring daggers at her.

"That guy did it first." Already, his name had slipped away from Akumi. "He punched me full on with a nen fist. He got what was coming."

"But that was too much for Killua. I let it slide with the others, but Killua is special. That needle can only do so much be-"

_Crashhhh!_

Illumi's voice was cut off by the sound of a door being kicked down. His eyes unfocused and he tilted his head slightly to the right.

"Hm... it seems Killua is running away," he said, voice back to normal.

"Let's go see wh-"

"KILLUA WHAT ARE YOU DOING? YOU CAN'T LEAVE YET YO- AHHHH"

They both ran to the entrance of the house, surprised at the shout made by Kikyo. Reaching the room, both Illumi and Akumi stopped to observe the scene before them.

Killua stood at the door, staring in defiance at Illumi with his claws out and open. Beside him was Milluki, who laid on the floor with a stab wound in his stomach. Kikyo was clutching a wall as she tried to staunch the blood that was gushing from the wound down her side.

"My my, this is interesting. It seems that you're running away Killua. Was my little fun thing too much? Did it make you feel uncomfortable? Were you really that scared of me?" Akumi paused in her taunting as a new thought came to mind. "No, you're running away because you like it. Admit it Killua, you're as bad as I am on the inside. Did you want to be in my place? Admit it, you wanted to be me in that moment and you were scared of that. You're scared that you're becoming me."

Without a response, Killua ran out of the house, leaving his mother and brother bleeding out on the ground.

* * *

_A fourteen year old Akumi stared up at her mother, whose eyes were wide open in shock. The knife in Akumi's hand was placed on the ground, her eyes never straying from the long red slice that traveled across her right wrist. She couldn't hear anything at the moment except for the buzzing in her ears._

_A scream from her mother pierced the silence, bringing her father to her room. By the time he arrived, there was a small puddle of blood on the ground. _

_Her father had yelled at her while her mother cried in the corner before wrapping her wrist and taking her to the sitting room. She hadn't lost enough blood at that point where it would require medical attention, but she knew that it was still a good amount. A week ago, her master had finally taught her hatsu, and she had been working on finding her medium for manipulation. When she had seen the knife in the kitchen, the idea had come to her: blood. Without further ado, she had grabbed the knife and ran to her room, eager to try her new idea. _

_Her mother had seen her as she had grabbed the knife and followed her, worried about what her daughter would do. She had noticed that her daughter had grown colder the past few months, no longer the happy individual that she once knew. _

"_What the hell were you doing?!" Her father yelled, his face inches from hers. _

"_Just playing around." Akumi replied, not really caring about what was happening. Her nen would make her heal quick enough. _

"_Playing around?! That's not playing around. Self harm is no small thing like playing around!" He spat the last two words out, disgusted that his daughter had spoken of cutting herself so flippantly. "You're coming with me! We are going to talk to a therapist no-"_

_His words were cut off as he felt a sudden wave of something that could only be described as murder. His eyes widened as he stared at its source. He had no idea what it was, but he knew that something in his daughter had snapped. His wife finally stopped sobbing, only to begin blabbering. _

"_Oh my gosh, the neighbors! When they find out what's happened, they'll never stop talking! I'll be the laughing stock of the entire town. Where did I go wrong? How did my daughter turn out like this when I tried to be the perfect, strong role model?!"_

_The word strong seemed to be the final straw for Akumi. Her eyes focused onto the blood dripping down her wrist, bending it to create a one foot blade. She sliced her other wrist, ignoring the pain. Creating a second blade, she walked over to the wall and hit it, the blood leftover on her hand hardening into a protective barrier. The punch made the wall crumble, leaving the shocked expressions of her parents._

"_Strong? You, mother?" Akumi let a laugh tumble out of her mouth. "Mother, you are the weakest being I've ever known. You sit around all day, talking shit behind people's back. You act like you have control over your life, while in fact you are manipulated everyday by your best 'friend' who has thrown you under the bus to the neighbors more times than I can count. You hold onto the false belief that you are at the top of the ladder, while in reality you are struggling for a single bone. You are weak." _

"_Wh-" Her father placed a hand on her arm, only to have it fall to the ground moments later. Without stopping her arm, she let it continue in its arc, the blade cutting his head off before he could finish the sentence. The body thumped to the ground a second later, leaving the woman to stare in horror at her fourteen year old daughter. _

_Annoyed at her, Akumi moved her arm again, this time slicing her mother in half along the torso. The two pieces flopped to the ground, leaving an expressionless Akumi to stand in the destruction of her living room. Without looking back, she let the blood fall to the ground and grabbed a lighter and jug of gasoline that her father had kept for the stove. Turning on the lighter, she flung it into the jar, protecting herself with nen as the world exploded around her. _

"_I hate weak people. I'll kill them all myself."_

* * *

A punch sent Akumi flying across the foyer, causing her to stared shocked at Illumi for a moment before flipping mid air and landing on her feet.

"Well someone isn't happy," she said, rubbing her ribs, which were still broken from the confrontation with the butler.

"You should not have said that. You've greatly impeded his training." Illumi said, walking over to Akumi.

"Well, we both know that he's coming back though."

"We can't wait long though. He'll grow soft."

A voice interrupted their discussion. "Illumi, Akumi, we need to talk. Come with me." Silva stood at the top of the stairs, taking in the scene in front of him. His eyes went to Kikyo and Milluki for a moment before resting his eyes on Akumi. She could almost see the exasperation in his eyes.

Arriving in his room, Silva sat down beside Mike while Akumi and Illumi stood in front of him.

_"_Killua will return home at some point. He is not one to abandon family, even if he may hate them," Silva said. "Meanwhile, Illumi. I have a job for you coming up that involves the Yorknew auction. Even Milluki can't get the information so it might not be possible for you to find much on the topic."

"How would you suggest I get information then?" Illumi asked, taking the envelope that Silva had held out.

"There will most likely be information on the Hunters Association website."

Akumi and Illumi both quickly connected the dots, realizing what Silva was saying.

"I'll get Milluki to sign me up for the application." Illumi turned around, headed for Milluki's room.

"Akumi will also join you." Silva said, interrupting Illumi's departure. The girl in question let a smirk appear on her face as she saw the slight tensing in Illumi's arm, a sign that he was irritated.

"She needs to train more," Silva continued, ignoring the fact that Illumi was not happy with the sudden turn of events. "Besides me and Zeno, who are both very busy, no one is prepared to teach her."

"Very well father. I'll have the butlers prepare a blimp and we'll get signed up as soon as possible. We'll leave before dinner."

* * *

After being told by Milluki that the exam took place somewhere in Zaban city, Akumi and Illumi left the house. Settling into one of the seats on the blimp, Akumi watched as Kukuroo Mountain faded in the distance before turning her attention towards the silent figure beside her.

"Ideas on how to find the exam location?" She asked, wanting to get the talking out of the way so that she could spend the next two days training in solitude.

"We'll split up," Illumi said, staring out in space. "Get your killing done beforehand. I don't want to deal with trying to stop you from murdering one of the examiners."

"Disguises?"

"Hm… just get something that covers up most of the tattoos. They stand out too much. I'll be going as my usual alias, Gittarackur."

The next two days on the blimp passed by slowly, comprised of Akumi stabbing herself with Illumi's needles, stabbing herself with other objects, and stabbing other objects with her blood. Basically two day of stabbing various things.

By the time they arrived at Zaban city, Akumi was ready to kill just about anything for entertainment. Illumi had simply nodded once at the girl before speeding off to who knows where. Deciding that there was nothing better to do, the girl walked into the first internet cafe she saw. Thanks to the long sleeves of the hoodie and her jeans, no one took particular notice of the girl. Grabbing one of the laptops that were sitting at a table, she printed out a map of the entire city.

_The testing site has to be large, _she thought to herself. _Large enough to hold at least 400 people. That means either a large building or somewhere underground. I'm putting my bets on somewhere underground with an entrance at the surface. _Looking out the window, she noticed the bar across the street. _Perfect. _

Entering the bar, she saw a single person that was surrounded in nen. His muscles tensed for a single moment upon her entry. _Good. He knows I can use nen. _ Without breaking her stride, she sat at one of the barstools. Immediately, the bartender ambled over.

"Are you old enough to be in here missy?" A sigh escaped her lips as she looked upwards, the hood covering her face able to hide all of her facial features.

Her voice came out quietly, just loud enough that the nen user would hear. "I'm old enough to take the hunter exam, so I see no difference in not letting me have some fun." She knew there was no logic to the statement, and the bartender's confused expression showed that he also saw no correlation between the two facts, but she had done what she wanted. Getting up, she left the bar, walking down a nearby alley. Moments later, the nen user in the bar, who at this point she believed to be a hunter, followed, coming face to face with her.

"I want to get to the hunter exam site," she said, giving no preamble.

"Well missy, you seem promising. You know nen and all that but I can't just lead you there. You know, the testing site is a good half a day away." He said, coming closer to her. Her eyes narrowed when she heard him talk, knowing that he was lying. Looking up so that he could see her face, she tilted her head slightly.

"If you don't, I'll kill you," she said calmly, her voice giving no hints that she was lying.

"You can't kill a navigator and then take the exam. They'll ban you."

"Not if they can't find the body."

Without another moment, she grabbed the man and sprinted towards the abandoned buildings at the edge of the town. Minutes later, she walked out, sure that no one would think to check the sewers for chopped up parts of a body. Orienting herself, the girl walked south, headed towards the steakhouse that the now dead hunter had revealed to be the location of the exam.

* * *

**Okay, so I finally finished the introduction to the story. Yes, 6 chapters, 16,000 words, and 42 pages for an introduction. This story is going to be long. This story will follow the canon events. It will have different parts taken out of the '99, '11, and manga version. I also will be putting my own writing into this. The story follows the canon, yes, but I will not be quoting the episode. I'm going completely off memory so you can get at least a few original scenes. Basic events will be the same, and so will important details, but conversations, details, possibly even certain events will be changed so that the story works with what I have. **

**If you're looking for a story that follows the canon to the word, I'm sorry but this isn't the right place for that. This will have canon divergence. (not sure how major yet, but it will be there). If you are only interested about the information on the story, you can stop reading here.**

**Do you guys prefer the long chapters with longer wait, or short ones with shorter chapters? Good either way. **

**Holy shit you guys, I'm sorry for the long update. Its almost 5 am and frankly am ready to collapse. I've been putting off school to write the last few chapters and now its caused me to stop writing so I can catch up. I do give frequent updates on the progress on my story in my profile, so if you're ever wondering where I go, check there. Hopefully I'll be able to handle bi weekly updates, if not weekly. This chapter was almost triple my first and nearly double the last one, so it took a while. I just wanted to finish the introduction out and not drag things on. As always, thank you _breather_ for beta reading and don't forget to favorite, follow, and review. As always, see you next time!**

**PS: Just a little personal thing, but anyone that does IB or has done IB, I would love to hear about it. Been going through it now and it would be nice to hear your experiences.**


	7. A reunion

**UPDATE YAYY! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Author's note at the end of this is has some insight on my writing process so if you're curios read that. Enjoy the chapter! (Published November 7th 2014)**

* * *

Arriving at the non-descript steakhouse, Akumi walked in. Immediately, she knew she was in the right place. Below, she could feel the auras of different people, and felt one that stood out more than the rest. _That's got to be the examiner._

"Welcome!" The man said that stood behind a counter. "What can I do for you today?" A quick glance told Akumi that he was a capable nen user.

"Is the back room over? I want the steak combo that opens your eyes, grilled over a low flame, until cooked," Akumi replied, keeping her voice calm.

The man's eyes narrowed, before gesturing to a corridor behind him.

"Go down that way and they can help you with the order." Akumi nodded, and was about to go in the direction he was pointing before being interrupted by his voice. "You know, it's very difficult for someone to get this far without a navigator. How'd you do it?"

A smirk appeared on Akumi's lips, though she knew that he couldn't see it because of her hoodie.

"I had one of them just tell me where it was." Before the man could reply, she walked away, headed for the corridor he had pointed towards. _It wouldn't do if I got disqualified before the adventure even began, _she thought to herself before arriving at a door.

Akumi entered the room, which contained a small table and four chairs surrounding it. Immediately after closing the door, she felt a jerk, before the room began to descend below ground. _An elevator huh? _Minutes passed by, during which Akumi moved to sit down on the table, watching as the numbers continued to increase. Finally, the elevator stopped, the numbers above it reading "B 100". The doors opened, a loud ding announcing her entrance.

The amount of time that had passed told Akumi that she was around half a kilometer below ground. Looking around, she saw a small crowd of people, all staring up at the new arrival. Immediately upon seeing her, the atmosphere changed. Some of the applicants saw her small stature and shrugged her off, but most of them carefully scrutinized her. Though she had no obvious signs, the same thought was running through everyone's minds. _That person is a threat._

Directly in front of the elevator stood... something. Akumi felt a pierced eyebrow raise in surprise as she took in its appearance. He barely reached her torso, and wore a black suit. What caused her to do a double take was the fact that he looked like a giant lima bean. In his hand, he held a circular tag with the number '63' written on it.

"Hello," said the green man. "This is your identification number. Please keep it at all times."

Akumi had to hold back a giggle as she stared at the man. Normally, she wouldn't ever let emotions show like this, but she couldn't help it. She was talking to a giant lima bean in a suit. A giant lima bean. And she had thought Illumi and his needles were weird.

Recomposing herself, Akumi took the number tag from him, looking around at the surrounding crowd. Most of the people there were in small circles, talking quietly amongst themselves while occasionally sparing a glance at other competitors.

"The name's Beans," the small man said. "I am part of the Hunter Association Exam Committee. Everyone here is waiting for the exam to start. It will still be a while so make yourself comfortable."

_Yeah, as comfortable as the concrete ground can be. _Giving no indication that she had heard him, Akumi continued walking, headed towards the wall on her left. As she walked away, she felt curious gazes fall on her.

"You must be new." Akumi felt a twinge of annoyance as a voice spoke to her. His voice was loud enough that everyone in the room could hear it. She had hoped that she would be able to wait without being taken particular note of until Illumi arrived. Turning around, she faced the man that had spoken to her.

"I'm Tonpa," he said, putting on a fake smile. She felt an immediate dislike for him, taking in his overall appearance. He was short and overweight, and held a can of juice in one hand, the other sticking out waiting for a handshake. Akumi stared at it, knowing that he himself was waiting for her to introduce herself. After a moment of staring emotionlessly at his hand, he let it drop, moving it to scratch the back of his head.

"Anyways," he continued, ignoring the awkward silence. "You must be new. Have a drink." He handed her the can, a large smile plastered on his face. She took it, knowing immediately that it had been tampered with.

"I've take this test a bunch of times, so if you want to know anything, ask me." Still ignoring the cold shoulder, he gave another smile before walking off. She knew without even looking that he was watching, waiting for her to take a drink.

Akumi stared at the can for a moment, contemplating what to do. _'Come on Akumi, you can have some fun.' _Agreeing with the voice, Akumi pondered what she could do. _Using nen at this point would bring too much attention, and killing him would make me a target. _To her left, she heard one group of brutes talk about Tonpa.

"... guy's already going at it again, trying to sabotage first timers."

"Yeah, looks like the dude is going to drink it."

"Yeah, they're an idiot. Don't even look strong. Probably won't even survive the first phase."

Bristling, Akumi chugged the entire drink in a single go, making sure that the group beside her saw. _Inconspicuousness be damned, I don't have the patience to deal with this guy. He's ridiculously weak anyways, I have no idea why he hasn't been killed yet. _

Throwing the can to the side, she stooped over slightly, acting like it had done something to her. She had no idea what sort of poison it was besides the fact that it wasn't deadly, but even lethal poisons would do next to nothing. _Fucking Kikyo actually had some uses besides almost killing me the first week with poisons and making me spend tea time with her._

Hobbling over to Tonpa, who she knew held a small smirk on his face, Akumi had to hold back the murderous aura that was bubbling up in her. '_Come on, just kill the guy. He's nothing but a pest.'_ She held back the urge to agree with the voice, instead giving him a light tap on the shoulder.

While he turned around, she slid her right hand across her left glove, letting the blade sewn into the folds of the palm area open a small gash. Manipulating the blood, she changed its form so that it resembled a small blade.

Stepping forward so that she was leaning against his shoulder, she quickly crowded his personal space, placing the blade directly above his right hip bone.

"Next time you try and poison me, I'll kill you," she whispered into his ear. "I don't take well to weaklings like you trying to step into the ranks of those that are stronger." She directed a small amount of killing intent at him, before stepping away. Immediately slipping into zetsu, she walked away, letting the blood fall to the ground. Fading into the crowd, she felt several pairs of eyes on her. Reaching a wall, she leaned against it, waiting as she felt the gazes slowly fall away, quickly forgetting the about her.

"My, my, you seem very interesting." Immediately upon hearing the voice, Akumi froze. The nen that was previously in zetsu poured out, creating a strong nen barrier around her.

"You..." she said, slowly turning her gaze around to face the man that she knew would be in a clown suit.

"Oh, hm? You know me?" The red head in front of her stared at her, unable to see her face as he looked downwards at her.

"Seven years ago, when I was fourteen." She could feel his nen responding to her own, slowly growing around him. "You left me alone in a alleyway."

"Ah yes," he said, remembering. "I must say that it did, in the end, work out well for you. Do you remember my name?" He twirled a joker card between his fingers, a smirk growing on his lips.

"How could I forget you?" Akumi replied, letting a small laugh fly past her lips. "Hisoka, for a very long time, I wanted to see you burn in a pit in hell.

The jester raised an eyebrow in response, before leaning backwards to stand beside her on the wall. Sliding down, he sat on the floor, before pulling out a deck of cards. After a moment's hesitation, Akumi joined him, watching as he built a tower.

"You were a very interesting child. Not many little girls decide to walk up to a strange magician and strike up a conversation with them." A chuckle escaped his lips as he placed the cards down, lining them up one after another.

"I was fourteen. The age where we think we know how the world works but still expect the best. I walked up to a stranger on the street, asked for a magic trick, and then followed him into an alley. I was a stupid little fucker." A dark laugh followed her statement as Akumi watched in interest as Hisoka began building the second layer.

"You were pretty naive back then. Following an older man into an alleyway and expecting just a magic trick and nothing else is the ideology of a seven year old."

"And look what happened. Instead of being kidnapped or something equally dramatic, I ended up getting punched in the face."

"Ahh, that was a lovely punch if I do say so myself. I'm very happy that someone actually managed to survive my nen baptism. And look at you now! Such..._delicious_ nen."

A smirk appeared on her face as she heard the last sentence.

"Trust me, I'm pretty glad I managed to live too. Otherwise, we'd still have a bunch of useless idiots running around. Not that there aren't any left. There are plenty."

"Playing around with natural selection, eh?"

"Not so much playing around. More like, raising the standards and hurrying the process up."

Hisoka paused in his tower building, having just finished the third layer.

"So why are you here?" He asked, tilting his head to study the card tower.

"Oh, some adventure, maybe a little bit of fun."

"And your definition of adventure is…?"

"Killing a few people, along with a torture session every now and then."

Akumi's reply created a break in the conversation, before Hisoka began to laugh.

"I thought I was pretty messed up, training little fruit so that I could kill them later, but you're just about as fucked up as I am."

She was about to reply about how calling people little fruits was pretty weird in itself, but before she could, a child exited the elevator, his white hair slightly disheveled. Eyes widening a bit in surprise, Akumi bit back her response as she watched Killua take the number 99 from Beans.

"I have to go," she said, slipping back into her emotionless personality. Without waiting for a response, she stood up and walked away, pulling the phone out of the front pocket of her hoodie.

"Illumi," she said without preamble. "I found him."

"_Akumi,"_ Illumi replied over the phone. "_I thought you were taking the test with me. Don't tell me you tracked him down instead." _

"No, he's taking the test too," she said, annoyed that he thought she would skip out on the exam.

"_Don't do anything ridiculous. Or stupid." _

"So basically anything that I would want to do."

Akumi's response was answered with a click, signalling that Illumi had hung up on her. Holding back a sigh, she placed her phone back into her pocket, observing Killua from a distance. He had, as she expected, chugged the drink before asking for another. Jumping onto a pipe, she leaned backwards, letting herself relax and falling into a light sleep.

* * *

Akumi woke when she felt another nen user enter the room. Letting her eyes open slowly, she scanned the crowd, acting like she had just woken from a heavy sleep on coincidence and not from another nen user. Eyes going to the elevator, she watched as Illumi took the number 301 from Beans. Looking upwards, his eyes met her gaze before walking towards her.

Everyone's eyes followed him, unnerved at his appearance. The clicking noise along with the pins stuck in his face was enough reason not to talk to him. A single glance towards Tonpa showed that he wasn't going near Illumi, and neither was anyone else. The only ones that weren't affected by his appearance were Akumi, Hisoka, and Beans.

Stopping beside Akumi, Illumi let out a few clicking noises, not turning his head towards her. Letting herself activate gyo, she watched as sentences former above his head from the nen in his needles.

'_Anything interesting?' _

Without turning to face him, she replied quietly. "Besides Killua, not really. Though there is another interesting person here. I still don't understand how Killua doesn't recognize you. Literally, you have the pins you carry around stuck in your head."

His eyes moved around, landing on Killua before moving to the redhead.

'_You met Hisoka?'_

"Yeah, we have some history. How do you know him?"

'_Work.' _

Seeing that the conversation was ending, Akumi stood up, planning to get some of the stiffness out of her joints before the exam started. Applicants were coming in one after another now, and she knew that the exam would begin soon.

A scream pierced the room, causing everyone in the room to pause in their conversations and stare at the scene before them. Hisoka stood in front of a man, who was currently on the floor screaming in pain. His arms were slowly fading away, turning into flower petals. Hisoka walked away, headed for Akumi and Illumi. The crowd around him parted quickly, not wanting to get in his way.

Stopping in front of Akumi, he watched as the applicants turned away, not meeting his gaze. Before she could comment on his stunt, a loud ringing noise began, followed by a wall rising upwards to reveal a man in a purple suit.

He began his introduction, during which Akumi studied him. _Obviously a Hunter. His aura is pretty strong and seems pretty strong in general too. _He began walking, taking large steps that caused others to jog in order to keep up with him. The man, after saying his name was Satotz, sped up, causing the crowd following to also speed up.

"What do you think of him?" Hisoka asked, running beside Akumi.

"He seems pretty interesting. Strong too, even though it's kind of weird he doesn't have a mouth."

"Ah, it seems like the first phase is going to be pretty boring. Nothing but running."

Nodding in agreement, Akumi looked forward, signaling the end of their conversation. Looking around, she watched Killua as he jumped on a skateboard to keep up with the examiner. Staring at the crowd, she let herself relax. They would be running for a while.

* * *

Akumi's full attention was brought back to Satotz when they began to climb up stairs and the pace sped up. She guessed that they had run around eighty kilometers, and at the rate they were climbing, she surmised that they only had a little ways to go. She increased her pace, going from the back of the group to the middle. Looking around, she had to hold back a sigh. _No one here is really that interesting. The only ones that really stand out won't shut up and are annoying. At this rate, I might have to kill someone else pretty soon._

Her gaze went to Killua, who was talking to another kid around his age. _He seems interesting enough. Maybe I'll get to play around a bit. _Looking up, she saw a light at the top of the tunnel. Around her, people were exclaiming, happy that they were done running. Arriving at the top, she watched as people piled out, some slumping over from exhaustion. Walking over to Hisoka, Akumi stood beside him and took in their surroundings.

A giant swamp stood in front of them, covered with fog. The fog was as thick as a blanket, letting her only see a few meters in any direction. The humidity caused her to frown, annoyed with the sticky feeling it was giving her.

"This is the Numere Wetlands," Satotz said, interrupting her thoughts of taking off the heavy hoodie, "but it is better known as Swindlers Swamp. There are many creatures here, all of which will fool you. If you fall for their traps, you're as good as dead."

Listening to the rest, Akumi turned when she felt the presence of an animal come near them. Her eyes narrowed as he began yelling, spouting something about Satotz being an imposter. She had to hold back a sigh, casting a glance at Hisoka who seemed amused by the scene before them. Catching her gaze, Hisoka raised his hand up, which held three playing cards, reinforced with shu. A smirk appeared, before Akumi sliced her hand, letting three small daggers form in her right hand. Hisoka gave a nod towards Satotz, and Akumi returned the nod, gesturing at both the creature and Satotz.

Moving in sync, they both threw their projectiles. The first wave was aimed for the creature, two daggers and card hitting him directly on the torso. The second wave, immediately following the first, flew towards Satotz, the dagger aiming for his right eye and the two cards aiming for his chest.

The creature fell, the monkey in his hand falling from his grasp as he hit the ground, dead. Everyone's attention went to Satotz, who had caught the projectiles, cards in one hand, dagger in the other. Their gazes went from the cards to the cards' owner and the figure that stood beside him, two more daggers in hand.

Hisoka let a small chuckle escape, before looking at the Satotz.

"You're the real examiner," he said, shuffling the cards between his hands. Everyone seemed surprised that he wasn't the imposter, and a few even freaked out, saying that Hisoka had killed the examiner.

Looking over at the corpse of the creature, she moved her gaze to the monkey, who she knew was faking being dead. It opened its eyes before leaping to its feet and running off into the mist. Before it could escape though, Akumi threw a pair of daggers at it, both slicing into the neck, causing its head to fly off from the body.

"Everyone here will die if they can't even tell a human from a creature," she said, lowering the hood. Everyone's attention was focused on her and Hisoka, and she could hear a few gasps as they saw her appearance. She still had the piercings covering her face, as well as the scars and tattoos. Deciding that continuing to wear the hoodie and long pants were useless, she took both off, revealing the black tanktop and black shorts on beneath. She felt their eyes take in the tattoos and scars that continued down her arms and legs, and watched as most of them took a step back.

Looking around at the crowd, who was now staring at both her and Hisoka in fear, her gaze paused at Killua, who was staring wide eyed at her, before continuing on. Turning her attention to Satotz, she listened as he threatened to fail her and Hisoka if they attacked another examiner during the exam. Continuing the speech he had started before being interrupted, she zoned out, only paying attention once more when they began running.

Following, she cast a glance towards Illumi, who looked annoyed, presumably from her blowing her cover to Killua. Navigating through the crowd, which quickly moved out of the way, she focused on searching for the younger Zoldyck, who she found running with a group of three other people.

Speeding up so that she was directly behind him, she leaned over, speaking loud enough that the entire group could hear her.

"Hello Killua." At the sound of her voice, everyone jumped, while Killua quickly leaped away from her, landing beside the boy that she had seem him with earlier.

The white haired boy turned his head to face her, mouth clamped shut as he attempted to stay calm.

"I'm not going back," he said, his voice mostly calm.

"Oh Killua, but you will. You just don't know yourself well enough to know it yet. And I'm not here to drag you back." Her voice remained impassive, ignoring the accusatory stares from the group he was running with.

The boy beside Killua stared at Akumi for a moment before he began to speak.

"If Killua wants to leave home, you should let him! Mito-san always said that you should do what you feel is right because it'll all work out in the end." A glare was directed at the boy that had spoken, the fishing pole in his hand bouncing up and down as they continued through the swamp.

"What's your name?" Akumi asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Gon! Gon Freecss!"

"Well _Gon,"_ she began mockingly. Immediately upon hearing the tone of her voice, Killua stepped into her line of sight, as a small attempt to protect his newly acquired friend. "I'm guessing you're around the same age as Killua. So probably twelve. Let me tell you something here. Following what you feel is right won't always make you happy. In most cases, it'll end up killing someone. In my case, it ends up with me killing a few people and me in a better mood. Keeping that happy little attitude is going to make you one day hate the world, and when it does, I will be there to push you off the edge."

Without knowing it, she had come closer to the boy, until her face was only a foot away. Meanwhile, Killua had taken his place beside her, his hand transformed into its razor sharp claws. When he saw her looking at his hand, he turned his head away, but left the claws out.

"Look at yourself Killua. Even now, your first thought is violence. Though I must admit, I thought you were smarter than to even think of attacking me? Must I remind you of what happened to the butler? Or your brother?"

The boy stiffened upon being reminded about the events that had ended up with him taking the hunter exam. Without a glance backwards, Akumi changed her course, moving to run beside Hisoka who, from the vibes of his aura, was becoming bloodthirsty. A single jerk of her head towards a clearing coming up on her right communicated the idea, the grin on Hisoka's face agreeing to her suggestion. Without pause, the two slowly drifted away from the group until they were completely separated.

Reaching out, Akumi could feel several people near where her and Hisoka had stopped. A glance directed at him showed that he also could feel them. Sharing a small grin, Akumi cut two deep gashes in her left and right wrist, creating two long daggers from the blood that flowed from the cuts. Holding one in each hand, she held them outwards, ready for the group that was quickly closing into a ring around her and Hisoka.

The jester moved behind her so that they were back to back. Pulling out a deck of cards, he finally allowed the blood lust to spill outwards, Akumi's own aura following quickly after. They stood together, one armed with cards, the other blood, ready to take on the fifteen something applicants facing them.

* * *

Not wasting any time after Akumi left, Leorio began questioning the boy on their visitor.

"Oi, Killua, how do you know that crazy chick? She didn't seem like a friend." Kurapika had to stop himself from facepalming upon hearing Leorio's observation. Through no stretch of the imagination could that person be called a friend. Observing Killua, Kurapika studied the boy's hand, which was clenched hard enough that blood was falling from it.

"I know her," Killua began after a moment's hesitation. "She's nothing but trouble. Stay away from her."

"Killua," Kurapika began. "What exactly has she done? She mentioned a brother and a butler."

Immediately upon mentioning the butler, Killua's steps faltered, causing him to stumble for half a step before continuing on.

"She… had some 'fun' with some of the people that worked where I lived." Killua began, eyes shifting from right to left.

"Fun?" Leorio asked, eyebrows raising in surprise. "I didn't think that she was that kind of person."

A moment of silence passed as everyone took in the meaning of Leorio's sentence. Kurapika had to hold back a sigh, already becoming desensitized to the other guy's dirty mind. Gon, being the innocent and naive child that he was, continued running, paying no heed to the innuendo.

"Leorio," Killua began, turning serious. "She's probably killed more people than my older brother. She's a complete psychopath who holds no remorse for others. If you fight her, you _will _die."

Kurapika's head turned to the right, hearing noises of something that could possibly be a brawl in the forest. Gon's head snapped to the right, eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"Killua," he said, eyes wandering over the forest on their right. "I can smell blood. I think there's a fight going on."

Looking around, Gon could no longer see the silhouette of Satotz. The people around him seem focused on something, whispering about, "taking the opportunity." Following the crowd, Gon, Killua, Kurapika, and Leorio arrived in a clearing, losing each other in fog that was now so thick that they could barely see directly in front of themselves.

Having become separated, Killua and Gon both hid in bushes on opposite sides of the clearing. Meanwhile, Leorio and Kurapika had been less fortunate, somehow finding themselves closer to the center, where a group of people were. Suddenly, the fog cleared, letting the four see what was going on in front of them.

A moment passed as Gon, Killua, Leorio, and Kurapika took in the scene before them. In the center, a ring of people had appeared, each holding weapons in their hands. Kurapika and Leorio, both close to the inner ring, froze in surprise. The two people that had attacked the examiner were surrounded and it looked like they were about to fight.

Killua, upon taking in the scene, stood up and fled, his survival instinct kicking in. _Shit, _he thought as he sped through the swamp. _Shit, shit, shit. They're all going to die._

A roar ran through the forest, the mob surrounding Hisoka and Akumi surging forward. Blood began to fly.

* * *

**We have finally reached the canon! YAYYY! Okay, not going to say much here because I feel absolutely exhausted, but thank you for reading. As I said before, this will not have the same details as canon. Things have to be changed around in order to accommodate the OC in the story as well as make it interesting. Next chapter is... something. Once I can make slightly better sentences I'll get to writing that. **

**The rest of the author's note is just me rambling so feel free to skip it.**

**Seriously you guys, my beta is the most fabulous person in the world. _Breathe_r, who I literally messaged forty-five minutes ago, got back to me in thirty minutes so that I could publish this tonight before I go to sleep. (I'm going to sleep after I finish this author's note.)**

**For those curious on how I write my chapters, it goes something like this: I first off have to have a basic idea of what's going to happen. For example, in this chapter, the plan was _Akumi meets Hisoka, include nen babtism, and running and beginning of swamp phase, ending chapter at fight. _I send the basic idea like that to my beta for several chapters and get feedback. Usually chapter planning is at least a few chapter in advanced in comparison to what I need to still write. After that, I describe all the events that will happen in the chapter. This includes me talking about several different ideas for one scene and then my beta helping me decide which one to follow through with. When describing all the events, I usually do a play by play of the chapter, the message usually totaling to ~4000 characters- not words, characters. This message is basically me typing anything that comes to mind. Really, reading it, I will ramble on with one thing before going with a final plan. **

**From there, I write the story out, following the last message I sent. As I run into problems, such as particular ways to deliver a scene (flashback or description usually) I send a message to my beta for advice. Throughout the entire time, I'm writing. I don't write this entire story in one go. As I write it, my beta will pop in and offer suggestions and fix errors. All in all, the process for a single chapter is very long, where communication between me and my beta play a crucial part. **

**Anyways, I'll see you guys later. Updates of chapter progress go on my profile so check there periodically. Reviews, favs, and follows are always appreciated! See you next time! **


	8. A standoff

**So, um... I'm not dead and I'm totally sorry for being nearly a week late? I was sick. That's my story and I'm sticking with it! Err... The chapter is kinda short too so I can't come up with excuses... um, I dunno. Enjoy~ (Published November 28th 2014)**

* * *

Akumi watched in interest as the thugs charged towards her and Hisoka. Leaving Hisoka to deal with the main group, she slipped away, going for those that were behind the first wave. Sliding under two men who were pointing swords towards her, she stabbed upwards at the men of either side of her. The daggers slid between their rib cages, piercing the hearts dead center. Letting go of her control on the two daggers, she allowed two more to form.

A group of three stood behind the two bodies that had fallen to the ground. Charging at her, Akumi side stepped the first person who attempted to stab her with his spear. She pressed close to him, crowding his personal space, and stabbed him in the stomach with her left hand while slicing him across the throat with her right. Without stopping her forward momentum, she pushed the man to the ground and stepped over him, throwing the dagger in her right hand at the head of the man in front of her.

Turning her attention to the final man in the group, she saw a small hesitation in his eyes after watching both of his comrades be defeated in the time span of fifteen seconds. Letting a grin appear on her face, Akumi took a slow step forward, enjoying the quickly growing panic that spread across his face.

"Please," he said, dropping the two daggers in his hand to the ground. "I'll leave right now. You won't ever see me ag-"

Tired of his babbling, Akumi leaped forward, slicing off his head in a single motion.

Looking around, the girl watched in interest as Hisoka disposed of the last of his enemies.

"Showoff," she muttered under her breath.

"Well it's no fun otherwise. Using a single card makes things more interesting," Hisoka said, wiping the blood off of the card.

"So are you going to take care of the people that are hiding in the forest or am I?" Akumi asked, looking directly at where Leorio and Kurapika had run to hide.

Taking out his entire deck, Hisoka began shuffling the deck, pondering the idea. Before he could make a decision, the bushes rustled, revealing Kurapika and Leorio.

"Oh," Akumi said, twirling another dagger in her right hand. "It's you guys." Without changing her stance, she flicked the dagger toward them, hitting the bark of the tree that stood behind them. The two people in front of her stared at the blade that was now hilt deep in the tree, dumbfounded. Neither had seen the girl throw the knife, much less see it as it flew past their heads.

Hisoka moved over to the side, watching as the scene played out.

While waiting for a response, Akumi saw the eyes of the blonde haired boy widen. Without turning, she stabbed another knife behind her, a smirk of satisfaction on her face as she heard a grunt of pain behind her.

"Thanks for no warning at all clown face." Akumi turned her head towards the older man, eyes narrowing slightly.

"Ah, but what's the fun in that? Besides," a mischievous smile appeared on Hisoka's face. "You would have been fine."

The tall man in the suit interrupted their conversation, his eyes glued to the man that was, at the moment, bleeding out on the floor. "Y-y-you just… stabbed him! Without any hesitation!"

Akumi tilted her head, a bored look on her face. "Is there something wrong with that?"

"Well… you just don't kill someone like that?"

A dangerous glint shined in Akumi's eyes. "Says who?"

The blonde cut into the conversation, a look of slight disbelief on his face. "Society! There's no reason to kill people. But you cut them down one by one."

Hisoka, witnessing the conversation between the three, hid a smile behind the card in his hand. Things were getting _fun._

Suddenly, the atmosphere took on a serious tone. Akumi, no longer slouching, leaned forward, glaring at the two men.

"What are your names?" She asked, her voice cold.

"Leorio."

"Kurapika."

"Well," she began, "_Leorio and Kurapika, _I couldn't care less if society approved of the killing I do. You see, there's a moment where you snap. Where you don't give two shits as to what society thinks. I reached that moment long ago. Killing is nothing more than moving a knife forward, throwing something at a target, hitting something in the right spot. I kill because I felt like it. Let me show you."

Reaching down, she grabbed the knife that was still lodged in applicant 67's stomach. Upon withdrawing it, she heard a gasp escape from his mouth. Ignoring the growing horror of the three, she lifted the man to his feet, and placed the tip of the dagger at his neck.

"You see, all I have to do is move this forward to kill him." She demonstrated this by pushing the blade forward, not enough to open a passage to the esophagus, but enough to draw blood.

"And if I'm in the mood, I'll have some fun." A maniacal grin was plastered on her face, her voice growing more hysterical with each word.

"I can cut open the wrists."

_Slice._

"I can chop a finger off."

_Chop._

"I can stab the shoulder."

_Shplet._

"I can break an arm"

_Crack._

"I ca-"

"STOP!" A new voice interrupted Akumi's demonstration. Whipping her around towards the voice, she watched calmly as a shiny red ball flew towards her face. Lifting her hand, as if to wave at someone, she caught the fishing lure, staring at it for a moment before lifting her gaze towards the owner of the fishing pole.

Three seconds dragged passed, during which the tension in the air became heavy enough to crush one of Tonpa's cans of juice. Maniacal laughter filled the air as Akumi dropped the lure, almost falling to her knees due to the effects of her laughter. Leorio and Kurapika both began to back away, and even Hisoka raised an eyebrow at the sheer force of the laughter.

All five of the people in the clearing, for the man that was lying on the ground was still alive, waited, though with varying emotions. Gon stood defiantly, fishing pole in hand ready to defend himself. Kurapika and Leorio were still backing up, and the man on the ground was mumbling indistinctly to himself while attempting to drag himself away from the psychopath, seemingly disregarding the fact that one of his arms were broken and he was profusely bleeding from all the wounds.

Akumi slowly began to compose herself, managing to stand up and grin madly at the boy dressed in green.

"Of all the people here, it has to be you! The child that's twelve years old!" Walking forward swiftly, she placed a hand upon Gon's head before he could retaliate, the tips of her fingers digging into his scalp as she lifted him into the air. "Dear child, today is your lucky day! I won't kill you, and apparently neither will I have to kill your friends! Isn't that great? I'm excited to see what will happen to you. I can't wait to watch you _snap_."

Before she could say anything more, a phone rang, interrupting her speech.

"Neh, Akumi." Hisoka held out his hand, the phone in it extended towards her. "Illu-chan wants to talk."

She took the phone from him, still holding onto Gon's head with her other hand.

"_We're at the next exam site."_ Illumi said. She could hear voices in the background. "_Finished with your games yet?" _

"Yeah, I found something interesting." Another giggle slipped out of her mouth and she turned away from Gon, facing the direction that she knew Illumi was.

"_Lovely," _the sarcasm was obvious enough that even Gon would have understood it. Without waiting for a reply, Illumi hung up and Akumi tossed the phone towards Hisoka.

Turning her attention back towards Gon, who had begun to try and remove her grip on him, she let go of his hair, allowing his feet to touch the ground.

"I guess he wants us to get to the next exam phase," she said, directing the statement towards Hisoka. She then began walking northwards, towards the group of four strong nen users that she could feel even from this distance. Stepping side by side with Hisoka, the duo walked out of the clearing, pausing only for a moment so that Akumi could stomp through the near-dead man's head, finally stopping the _incessant _moaning that she could hear coming from him.

* * *

The location of the second phase was not far away from the clearing, seeing that it only took a few minutes worth of sprinting to get there. Immediately upon the arrival of the arrival of the duo, silence fell upon the group of examinees as they took in the appearances of the two killers. Hisoka was staring at his cards, wiping blood off of them one by one. Akumi, not physically hurt but still a sight to behold, had dried blood caking her right hand as well as the black shorts she had on.

Whispers broke out in the crowd as people speculated what ran into the bloody duo. Those that knew of the fight backed slowly away, shocked that the two had managed to survive the fight with no apparent scratches. Killua, who was waiting in vain hope that the psychopath would die, slipped into the middle of the crowd, knowing that she was looking for him.

As more people arrived, usually in some state of damage, Akumi and Hisoka moved off to the side, opting to sit under a tree rather than stand and waste energy.

"Neh, you seem to use a lot of blood throwing all those daggers around." Hisoka said, once again beginning to build another tower of cards.

"I'm fine," Akumi said, searching the crowd for a certain pin-head. "I didn't even lose a liter."

"So, do you mind telling me why you didn't kill the little boy?" Though he didn't see it, Akumi's composure slipped, and had it lasted for any longer than a mere moment, he would have seen the spark of unease that flashed through her eyes.

"He seemed interesting enough. I figured that he would lead to some adventure down the road. I plan to keep tabs on him." The unease was gone, as if it had never appeared, and Akumi stood up, turning her head towards the road that the rest of the stragglers were coming from.

Gon, Leorio, Kurapika were making their way up the path, energized by the group of applicants that were in sight.

"Hm, they made it here," Akumi mumbled, curious as to how the trio had been able to locate the exam site. Before she could voice her curiosity aloud, Satotz began to walk away, the doors behind him opening slowly.

"It seems that we're finally starting the second phase," Hisoka said, standing up from his spot on the ground. Akumi did nothing but nod. Perhaps the second phase would be more interesting than just running.

* * *

Cooking. They were going to fucking cook. _I did not just run some 100 kilometers to cook for this bitch on her high pedestal. _Not that they were allowed to feed her first. No, they had to feed that mammoth of a man before they were even allowed to go near her highness. After getting over her initial shock of disbelief, Akumi slid her gaze over to Illumi, who she could tell was only a step away from killing everyone within a half kilometer radius. Not that she was faring much better; another snotty sentence from that lady- Menchi was it?- and Akumi would be joining him in the bloodshed.

Hisoka nudged her in the side, ignoring the murderous glare that she sent him.

"You look like you're about to murder everyone in the room," he said quietly, ignoring the shouts of protest that were being sent to the gourmet hunter.

"Well that's because I am," Akumi retorted, her chaotic aura slowly spreading outward. Instinct caused her to lift her right hand up, catching a pin that was aimed directly towards her face.

Immediately, aura from the head of the pin flowed outwards, forming a short message.

'_Don't get us kicked out.' _

Raising her hand that held the needle, she not-so-subtly showed Illumi the middle finger before letting herself calm down and placing the needle in her back pocket.

"Let's go kill the damn pig," she mumbled, headed towards the forest behind her. _Let's get this phase over with. I've killed a good half dozen people in the past hour and I'm ready to kill a few more already._

* * *

Pig killed, cooked, and served. It had only taken a matter of minutes and well thrown dagger to the forehead. Now all that was left was to cook for her royal-bitchiness.

Except of course, Akumi had never made sushi in her life.

She knew what it was, thanks to the old man eating it nearly every night, but what the hell was pressed sushi? _Is it that fancy stuff in the boat thingy? Is it the one where you roll it up? Goddammit, why did I have to kill the man? I could have called him up to ask. _Akumi saw similar looks of confusion on the other applicants around her showing that they were no better off.

Moving to a station, Akumi looked to her right and watched as the loud mouth ninja not-so-subtly tried to contain his laughter. _Bastard probably knows what it is,_ she thought to herself. Looking down at the cutting board, the only supplies available were some rice and various knives. _Well, all sushi started off with fish._

With that thought in mind, Akumi left the kitchen area, only to be nearly trampled seconds later by the crowd that was screaming fish. Narrowing her eyes, she shot a death glare at the blond from the clearing who she had heard yell out the words fish moments ago.

'_Maybe you should have killed them,' _the voice in her head said, and at that moment, Akumi couldn't help but agree with it. Continuing on her way, she found an empty spot at a river and sat down. Too lazy to attempt finding a fish on her own, she simply cut her arm open and let the blood flow mix with the slow moving water of the river. She waited, watching as the water slowly took on a red hue.

The blood acted as a makeshift en, telling her what it came in contact with when mixing with the water. Usually, it was just easier to use en, but there was something strangely satisfying about using the blood. It also saved her the time of getting more blood to kill the thing with. All she had to do was make some of the blood harden and stab itself into the fish and voila! A lovely fish, already dead.

Using the blood still in the water, she moved it so that it lifted the fish out of the water, placing it on the shore in front of her feet.

_Ugh I don't want to smell like fish guts. _Akumi didn't mind guts at all, but the smell of fish shit was something that she didn't want on her hands, much less in her blood stream when she cut herself. Feeling lazy, she ripped out two earrings, one on each side, and started cleaning out the fish guts with the two whips that came from her ears.

After cleaning out the fish and re-piercing her ears, Akumi made her way back to the giant warehouse where they were cooking, pausing on the way to stare at the poisonous flower by the path. It was very tempting to poison the royal bitch, but she knew that it would come back to bite her in the ass. Still, she plucked the flower from the road, stuffing it in her pocket along with the needle before continuing on.

She stood at her station, watching as the ninja cut his piece of fish into a rectangle. _Oh, it's that stuff. _Quickly realizing that pressed sushi was nothing but fish on rice, Akumi got to work slicing the fish and cooking rice. Thankfully, it seemed that baldy didn't know how to use a rice maker and so, in a matter of minutes (be thankful for five minute rice) Akumi had a plate of non toxic sushi read to be presented.

Taking the front spot in the line- no one behind her was complaining- she waited impatiently as her royal bitchiness took a bite.

"The rice is too mushy. You fail"

...

How each and every person did not collapse dead, Akumi wasn't sure. The temperature in the room dropped twenty degrees in the span of a second and she saw Illumi move closer to her out of the corner of her eye.

"You're a bitch." The words flew out of Akumi's mouth without any hesitation and she flipped the table that she sat in front of. Ignoring the looks of shock on the applicants faces, she turned around ready to march out of there and murder the first person she ran into.

Feeling something that _definitely wasn't Illumi's needle_ fly towards her, Akumi swayed to the right, letting the projectile- a butcher knife- slice open her cheek. Without looking backwards, she snatched it out of the air and threw it back, knowing that it would land right between the examiner's feet.

_I already failed the exam. Attempting to harm the examiner won't do me any more damage. _With that thought in mind, Akumi turned around, ready to go all out against Menchi.

Menchi, seeing the predatory look in the applicant's eyes, stood up, pulling out two more butcher knives from who knows where. At this point, all of the applicants had stopped cooking, watching in both horror and interest as to what would happen.

The two opponents stood opposite of each other. Akumi, seemingly unarmed, while Menchi held two knives. Bukhara stood off to the side, knowing better than to interfere. Menchi took in her opponent's scars and cheek that had leaked no blood in a single gaze, quickly deducing that she was in for a serious fight.

"Don't call me a bitch," she said, keeping herself standing straight up. They both knew that the other could move faster than the blink of an eye, and that standing in a fighting position would do nothing to help them.

"It's not my fault you are one," Akumi replied, readying herself to cut open her arm.

"If you attack me, I will outright fail everyone in here," Menchi said, though she already knew that she was going to fail them all anyways. She was in a bad mood.

Apparently no one else realized it either, with the exception of Hisoka and Illumi. The crowd suddenly turned against Akumi, preparing themselves to charge. Seeing the change in allegiance, Akumi quickly pulled out enough blood to create four throwing dagger, two in each hand.

"Must I remind you what happened with the monkey?" she asked the crowd, waving the daggers in the air. "I will do it to each and every one of you here. And don't think that you can take me. I will kill all of you." The crowd hesitated, and seizing the moment, Akumi let her aura spill outwards, the wavelengths of madness pulsating throughout the room.

People all around her dropped to the ground, feeling as if their heads were being split open. Even Menchi, who was experienced in nen, took a step back, shocked at the amount of aura the girl in front of her possessed. Illumi even raised an eyebrow, though he was already accustomed to the strength of it.

Akumi was pissed and at the rate she was going, not many people were walking out of the phase two alive.

* * *

Satotz raised the binoculars he had in his hands, watching as applicant after applicant failed.

_This isn't going to end well, _he thought to himself. Upon seeing applicant 63, the one that had thrown the knives at him, walk with her plate of food, he jumped out of his perch in the tree. Pulling out his phone, he contemplated calling the chairman. He knew from the mood that Menchi was in, no one was going to pass the second phase, which he knew wouldn't go over well with the applicants.

A sudden wave of hostile nen enveloped him, almost causing him to drop the binoculars that he was holding. Placing them against his face once more, he looked to see what the commotion was, though he had a gut feeling that it had something to do with the knife wielder.

The scene of applicant 63 and Menchi having a stare down contest greeted Satotz, who quickly dialed the chairman's number.

"_Ah yes Satotz?" _The chairman sounded like he was in a good mood.

"Menchi is causing problems and it looks like she and another applicant are about to have a fight," Satotz said, beginning to walk towards the warehouse. He could make it there in seconds if he had to run, but it didn't look like he would need to run. Yet.

"_Is it another strong nen user?" _Netero asked.

"Yes."

"_Very well. I was hovering over the exam site anyways. I'll be there in a jiffy!"_

After hanging up, Satotz began running towards the exam site, only stopping when he reached the edge of the forest. _Netero needs to hurry up._

* * *

Akumi waited for Menchi to make the first move. Illumi stood off in the distance, waiting to see how things would play out. Beside him stood Hisoka, who was eagerly awaiting for the fight to begin.

The first one to charge was a random applicant. Immediately, the man beside him charged as well. Seeing the first two charge out of the corner of eye, Akumi threw two of the daggers, lodging themselves into each man's shoulder.

"Next one will be between your eyes," she said, eyes still focused on Menchi.

Menchi tensed herself, ready to charge in. Akumi, seeing that she was only a moment away from attacking, readied herself to cut open her arms. Slowly, the blood flowed outward from her chee-

_WHOP WHOP WHOP!_

The sound of a blimp broke the tension in the air, though neither Akumi nor Menchi lowered their weapons. Around them, people began to murmur, pointing upwards at the Hunter Association logo on the blimp. The dangerous atmosphere in the room passed, leaving the burning curiosity of Akumi. The aura she felt emanating from the blimp caused her to nearly drop her control on her blood, not from fear, but because it was so unexpected. Losing most of the her urge to kill the woman in front of her- though she still wanted to stab someone- Akumi straightened up to full height, staring upwards at the figure that was standing atop the blimp.

Without warning, the figure jumped, falling to the ground. The aura that surrounded him barely waned as he landed, only a small fraction of it going to his legs to support them.

"Well, it seems like I'm interrupting something." The old man said, a slight twinkle in his eyes showing his amusement. "Anywho, I'm Isaac Netero, the chairman of the Hunter Association. How are you guys doing?"

* * *

**YAYY! Chapter 8 is done~ So this chapter was late because I was sick in bed the entire weekend and then stuff... It's Thanksgiving week and I would totally write another chapter this week if I didn't still have to do school work. *ignores three foot high pile* So December is always a busy month for me, especially these upcoming two weeks. Once I get out for break, things should go back to normal, but that doesn't happen for another three weeks. Anyways, next chapter we can look forwards to... uhh *checks notes* a blimp ride? Yay? (You should be excited, put an excited face on, dammit)**

**Literally**** you guys, this chapter was a pain in the ass to write. If you've been stalking my profile, you can see. Basically, that thing is updated anytime I work on it so go there if updates get scarce. I can also start posting teasers on tumblr if you like! Tell me!**

**Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and favorites, follows, and reviews are appreciated. Stay fabulous dear readers.**


	9. A little blimp ride

**GUESS WHO ISN'T DEAD? THAT'S RIGHT! THIS CRAZY ASIAN! Anyways, it's great to be back at it writing stories you guys. I lost motivation for this story and I picked it back up yesterday after not touching it for a month. Life has been crazy and I haven't had a free weekend since school started back, so it's great to be back in the swing of things. Anyways, enjoy this chapter! (published February 13th, 2015)**

* * *

After everyone had boarded the airship, Akumi had half expected the old man, Netero, to kick her out right there for almost killing Menchi, but a single look at him showed that he had no intention of doing so. In fact, she could almost see a glint of amusement in his eyes as he spoke with the indignant examiner.

The ride to the Split Mountain was short and calm, with most of the applicants relieved that they would be given a second chance, though a glance in Akumi's direction dampened the mood. The applicants filed out of the blimp, the breadth of space given causing Akumi's mood to lift, if only slightly. Walking through the crowds that scattered as soon as she appeared, she listened to the gossip of the various groups while waiting for Menchi to make her appearance.

"She's crazy, going after a examiner like that…"

"I was kinda rootin' for her to take that lady down…"

"... would've killed her too."

"... gotten kicked out…"

A glare sent to her from Illumi made Akumi smirk, before purposely turning her back to the assassin. Raising her right hand, she caught the pin that she knew was flying over her right shoulder.

'_I don't care what you do, just don't mess up the mission' _

She tucked the pin into her pocket before continuing on her way, joining the jester as they waited for instructions. While Menchi gave her instructions – something about an egg – Akumi turned her attention to the chairman Netero, who was causing tingles to dance across her skin when he glanced her way. The two studied each other carefully, gauging strengths. She had to hold back a whistle as she watched the nen flowing around Netero.

_That man knows his shit._

Menchi finished her instructions, the gist of it being that Akumi had to get an egg. Looking around, she watched as most stared apprehensively down the ravine, eyeing the hunter that had just floated back up. Mostly bored, Akumi took a step forward, walking straight off the cliff. She grabbed the first web that flew by, and ran across the web to the egg sack that was nearby.

She looked upwards, watching as Gon and his friends flew past her, grabbing onto one of the lower webs. Soon people were falling left and right, placing more and more weight on the webs.

_Hm, seems like the webs might break, _she thought, staring at the tall cliffs surrounding the ravine. Quickly thinking, Akumi cut open her left shoulder, the blood forming a mesh net that securely held the egg. _Now now, what do I do to make this more interesting? _A quick glance towards the cliff showed the webs below her were fraying with all the bodies clinging to them, while her own was perfectly fine, as it only held her own weight.

"We have to wait for the updraft!" The loud yell from Gon snapped Akumi out of her thoughts and pushed her into action.

She reached up and pulled out two piercings on each of her ears, the whips grabbing onto the web that she was jumping off of. Falling down, she spotted one applicant holding onto the web for dear life and swung towards him while slicing her right hand open to form another knife. The man, sensing that someone was approaching, turned his head, only able to let out a single yelp before Akumi slit the tendons in his right hand, causing him to fall down the ravine.

She moved on to the next applicant she saw, this one in the same situation as the last except that he was trying to inch his way towards the egg sack a couple of meters away from him. A brief pass below had him suddenly in need of a right arm, and he dropped to the water below. Another fly by dropped another two applicants, three more following soon afterwards, their shouts echoing off the towering ravine walls as they fell into the raging rapids below.

By this point, others were starting to take notice of the chaos that a certain blood wielder was causing. Examinees, with a sudden desperation, started dropping left and right, preferring to risk their chances with the rapids at the bottom than face Akumi.

After knocking five more applicants from the web, Gon finally took notice of Akumi's handiwork.

"Killua," Gon shouted. "Is she going to cut us off the web too?" A moment passed as Killua studied the applicants that fell before answering.

"No, I think she's going to avoid us," he replied. _Anyways, it seems like she's taking out the applicants that were struggling. None of the applicants that she's taken out seemed like they were going to pass this year anyways. _

Akumi made sure to stay far away from Killua and his friends. She knew that she was already pushing her limits with Illumi's patience, and any move towards Killua would definitely cause all hell to break loose.

A sudden flutter of breeze distracted Akumi from her killing spree, and she swung up to settle herself onto a sturdy strand of web. Moments later, the breeze became a tremendous updraft that caught the bodies of the applicants, sending them flying into the air with eggs in their hands. Sparing a glance upwards, and briefly entertaining the idea of trying to shoot the applicants down, Akumi let the blood fall to the ground, leaving only the mesh bag that hung from her right shoulder.

_Well, lets go look at the damage I made. _

* * *

Akumi munched on the egg as she walked around the blimp, ignoring the fact that she probably should have eaten it an hour ago. _Hmm, _she thought to himself. _An entire night to do whatever I want. What will I do? _Looking down, she realized that there was no more egg left, and finding that she was still hungry, Akumi turned towards the cafeteria, the idea of real food for the first time since before the exam making her willing to murder everyone in the air- not that she wouldn't have in the first place.

The cafeteria was buzzing with activity as the remaining applicants ate their meals or talked with one another. Ignoring the gazes that clung to her back, Akumi started grabbing anything that she recognized. A quick scan of the cafeteria revealed Hisoka and Illumi sitting in one of the corner booths, with plenty of room for her to sit.

"I'm not interrupting your alone time with each other, am I?" she asked, her voice the exact opposite of her appearance, which was still covered in blood from the previous stages.

"No." Hisoka replied, shuffling his deck of cards around. "But it is rather off-putting when the person sitting next to me is covered in blood."

"Well it's not like you haven't been in the same position," Akumi said in between bites of food. "And if I hadn't cut down as many people as I did, someone's brother might have fallen down the ravine."

"_Click clack clack clack." _

"Sure Illumi, a kid without nen would have definitely survived that fall."

"Technically, the fall wasn't supposed to kill you," Hisoka said, staring intently at his card tower he had begun to build.

"Hm, I don't really remember them saying that."

"Well, you were a bit preoccupied with staring down the chairman and glaring death at that gourmet hunter."

Finding no good reply for that, Akumi resumed her eating, occasionally blowing down Hisoka's card tower. After the third time, he gave up and, sending a glare at Akumi, dealt out five cards to both her and Illumi.

"Seeing as you find my cards so entertaining, let's play a few rounds of poker."

* * *

Once the game had begun, a deadly calm fell upon the trio. All three sat silently, attempting to discern telltale signs of a fib in each other's faces. Akumi's face turned cold and calculating, switching between gazing intently at the cards and having a stare off with either Illumi or Hisoka, the later of which simply wiggling his eyebrows and shooting a grin at the blood manipulator. Illumi's face stayed as it usually did. A rock would have been more expressive.

After thirty minutes, Akumi knew something was up. Counting cards was not the most polite thing to do – not that she cared about propriety in the first place – but she knew something was up. Hisoka suddenly threw his cards down, the five cards causing her eyes to nearly pop out of her face.

"What the fuck, there's no way that's possible." Akumi stared down at the cards in disbelief. How the _fuck_ had that happened?

"Counting cards are we?" The grin on Hisoka's face turned towards her, issuing a personal challenge again her pride.

"We both know that all three of us are counting, Clown Face, and the fact that you happened to grab all four aces and a king is complete bullshit."

"But Akumi, don't you trust me?"

A small snort of disbelief came from her. "I trust you about as much as I trust Pin Head to not kill me if I harm his brother. I'm done with this. You two keep on playing."

The magician in question chuckled, before dealing out the next hand to Illumi. Akumi leaned back in her seat, turning her attention from the card game to the other applicants. Killua seemed to still be with the group he had joined with at the swamp, where they all munched on food. Others were scattered about, talking in small groups of three or four. The ninja sat in a group with the animal poacher and sniper, and was currently boasting about his training days.

"That ninja is annoying," she stated, eyes trailing back to the card game.

"There's a chance he might be interesting in the future, though," Hisoka replied, throwing the makeshift chips into a pile.

"Before you get him, I wanna have some fun with him." A smirk appeared on her face. "I wanna see if he can keep up that sort of talking when I start cracking his fingers."

"_Click clack click click."_

Nen began to pool about Illumi's head. '_The green boy is able to hear us. Let's move somewhere else.'_

Without a word, the trio gathered the cards and walked out, immediately turning towards one of the many storage rooms within the airship. Opening the door, Akumi found two people that were sleeping in the corner, heads braced against the wall. Leaning over them, a red blade appeared, pressed against the neck of the one on the right. His eyes snapped open, immediately going to the sharp object that was pressed against his throat.

"Wakey wakey."

"You always make a mess, Akumi."

"Not like you haven't dealt with it before during one of our missions, Illumi."

"Just clean it up."

The trio stood at the entrance of the room, staring down at the floor where a large puddle of red resided, taking up over half of the sitting space. Illumi had removed his needles after she had killed the two applicants, and was currently polishing the yellow heads.

Walking through the blood to stand in the center of it, Akumi cut open her right hand and placed it against the ground. The nen in her blood mixed with the blood on the ground, until the puddle glowed with the burgundy aura. Now able to control the blood, she formed it into a bubble measuring half a meter in diameter.

"I'll be back once I dispose of this." Looking down, she realized that she was coated with blood and, after a pause, added it to the bloody ball with a wave of her hand.

After the door closed behind her, Hisoka waited a moment before beginning to speak.

"So she can only control blood with her nen in it?"

"Yes," Illumi replied, taking a seat on the ground. "She's good for cleaning up messy crime scenes, but I rarely had use for it." The yellow pins were good at making clean kills, and very rarely did they actually cause blood to flow.

"So how long has she been with you?"

"Five years." Seeing the raised eyebrow that Hisoka was giving him, Illumi continued on. "Killed her parents at fourteen, killed her master a year later, and decided to show up at our house when she was sixteen."

"Five years? What made her stick with you that long?"

"She was looking for adventure, and knew that she had to be stronger in order to find it. So she trained with us."

"I find it rather difficult to believe that your father and grandfather would just let a stranger join the ranks of the family."

"She doesn't know much about us." That in itself was true. His father had been very careful when giving missions to Akumi, only ever allowing her to partner with Illumi so that she knew little of the other family members' capabilities, and even then, she was only sent out on missions that demanded significant violence and little in the way of subtle politics.

Somewhere around a year ago, Illumi had noticed a difference in her, though at first he wasn't sure what it was. It was only until she started actively participating in Killua's training sessions that he realized what it was. She was hiding something, while at the same time learning as much as she could about the family. And she had finally put all that knowledge to use by pushing Killua past the tipping point.

He supposed that he should have counted himself lucky that it had taken four years to realize how little trust the family had in her. Sure, she knew Kalluto's nen, and Illumi's to an extent, but she knew nothing of his father's or grandfather's nen. All the girl knew about his mother was that she specialized in poisons, and she didn't even know that Alluka existed. That would be bad. Very bad.

Illumi knew that after the hunter exams, with Killua in tow, things would change within the Zoldyck household. He didn't believe that his father would kill her, as Zeno prefered her alive, but there was the question of whether or not she would still be allowed to stay with them after the exam. The hindrances that she could bring to Killua's training would most likely outweigh the benefits of allowing her to remain among them. And Illumi had a feeling that she would be leaving soon.

* * *

Turning the corner, Akumi finally found an exit sign that pointed the way to the outside. Carrying around a giant ball of blood was not the most entertaining thing in the world, but she knew that putting it anywhere else would just lead to some lecture from Illumi that she didn't want to hear.

"I come from a family of assassins."

Pausing, Akumi lowered the ball of blood to the ground and morphed its shape and consistency into a solid cube. Taking a seat on it, she looked out from the corner to see Green boy and Killua talking.

_Hm, seems like he's talking about the family. _Leaning forward, she listened to the Zoldyck heir as he talked about what he wanted to do.

"I want to catch them as a bounty hunter and turn them in."

Akumi had to hold back a snort of disbelief as she heard him say that. _That boy doesn't even know what he's getting himself into. _Not only was he nowhere close to beating his older brother, much less his parents, he didn't even know that nen existed. _He wouldn't even last a minute in a fight against his father. _

Continuing to listen to Killua, Akumi was barely able to keep her seat solid, she was so amused by the delusions that the boy had over his family. Leaning forward just a little too much, her right arm brushed against the green plant that she sat behind. Immediately, Killua paused in the conversations, eyes zeroing in on the plant. But Akumi had already vanished, and the only thing that he had been able to see was the flash of a shiny red object before they were both gone.

Before he could get up and attempt to follow the shadow, Issac Netero appeared down the corridor, mischief in his eyes.

* * *

Beans walked into the room, balancing a tray of tea in one hand and reading an email on his phone with the other. Sitting down on the sofa, he glanced around at the examiners before grabbing one of the cups of tea. No one had touched the food and any person that was observing the group would see the tensed positions and cautious air that surrounded them.

None of them had missed the killing intent that had been released moments before and they were all now concentrating on the aura that was walking through the halls. They all tensed as they felt the aura stop, resting at an intersection.

"Who do you think it is?" Beans asked, breaking the tension that was in the room.

Menchi scoffed, before leaning forward to take a cup of tea. "Is that really a question? It's that nen user, the one that threw my knife back at me."

"How many do you think she killed?" Beans asked after taking a sip. He had to hide a grimace as he swallowed it. He forgot to add sugar.

"Not near as many as previously," Satotz said, back hunched as he continued to observe the aura that was still located at the intersection. "I know she took out at least one navigator before the exam even began. And then she had to have taken out at least half a dozen in the swamp with number 44."

"They're a dangerous combination, her and that jester," said Buhara. "She took out another dozen or so at Split Mountain."

Beans thought for a moment before pulling out a laptop. Starting it up, he slid his hunter card out of his pocket and opened up the Hunter Association website. "What number was she again? I know it's normally frowned upon, but we can look her up."

"Number 63," Satotz said, getting up to look at the computer. Menchi and Buhara both got up to join him, before sitting back down as Beans displayed the laptop screen on the television.

"Akumi Chisio. 21 years old. Born in Creah, a town on the outskirts of Kakin. Parents died in a fire when she was 14 and then she disappeared for 7 years until signing up for this hunter exam."

"Fire," Buhara mumbled to himself, staring at the single document about the applicant.

"Most likely killed them herself then," Menchi said, reaching for a cookie. "But why at such a young age? Did she know nen at that point?"

"Beans," Satotz said, standing up from his seat. "Find out other information about Akumi if you can. We don't have any concrete reason for kicking her out, but I want to find out as much about her as possible."

* * *

After dumping the blood off the airship, Akumi decided that now was the best time to do some training. Taking one of Illumi's needles, she plunged it into her neck, watching as the landscape passed below her.

After she had drained the two needles she had in her back pocket, she sat down and began meditating, the aura around her for once having a smooth flow to it. She glanced at the time before closing her eyes. _I'll go four hours before going to check on Illumi and Hisoka. _She let a smirk appear on her face for a moment. _I'll let them have their alone time. _

Three hours and twenty seven minutes later, thirty three minutes too early, Akumi was snapped out of her trance by the loud laughter of a bald ninja near the door that she was leaning against. Not annoyed enough to attack the ninja, she opted to continue sitting in front of the door, until she realized that the voice wasn't going away. _That bastard's going to pay for making me get up. _Hoisting herself up from the ground, she peeked through the window, slightly surprised to find that he was in fact down the hall and around a corner from her location.

_How loud is this guy talking?_ Unsure whether to be impressed or annoyed at the power of his voice, Akumi opened the door, carefully closing it behind her before walking towards the source. Before turning the corner, she formed a single throwing dagger in her right hand, aiming for the brain stem located at the back of the ninja's neck.

"Well Hanzo," the man beside him seemed to be struggling to think of something to say, obviously internally debating whether or not to tell his companion to politely fuck off. "that's all very interesting."

The dagger was about to leave her hand when the ninja, Hanzo, suddenly turned around, eyes narrowed as he tried to find the source of his intuition's warning. His eyes finally settled on the small piece of silver that was shining in the moonlight, before following the shadow of a silhouette to form the image of a body.

Opening his mouth to comment, his attention went from the mysterious figure to behind him, where he was just barely able to discern the thump of something hitting the ground. Pausing his movements for a moment, he turned towards the source of the sound. The sound of bodies hitting the floor was distinct, and both he and Akumi instantly recognized it. Seconds later, he could smell the coppery scent of blood. Gereta, noticing that it was actually silent for once – Hanzo had been talking for an hour straight – turned the same direction that Hanzo was facing.

"Something wrong?" Gereta asked, noticing the tensed posture that his companion had.

"Two people were just killed." Hanzo's demeanor had changed completely, going from a happy, talkative, slightly annoying guy, to a cold, silent statue. He had gone from a friend to a predator in seconds.

"Killed! Wh-"

"We're leaving." Leaving no room for arguments, Hanzo turned the opposite way and began walking quickly. He stayed out of things like this.

He didn't notice that there was no longer someone standing in the shadows.

* * *

As soon as the bodies had hit the floor, Akumi had slipped silently away, taking an alternate route to the source. Pausing at the corner of the corridor, she saw the pool of blood that was slowly flowing down the hall. She peeked her head around the corner, and upon seeing the mess of white hair that she knew belonged to Killua, she let a knowing smirk cross her face. _That kid finally cracked, _she thought, staring thoughtfully at the bloody puddle.

She cut her finger open and placed it in the puddle, waiting patiently as the nen spread up the red stream to the bodies. The nen flowed into the bodies, spreading through each vein and artery. Once the body had been completely engulfed by her nen, she concentrated, focusing on the blood vessels that were around the eyes. Her own blood barely took up any concentration, but _damn, _controlling two complete bodies was hard.

She let the blood vessels near the eyes pop, allowing the blood to flow down their face. Next, she switched her concentration to a single body, forcing the muscles in the lungs to push the air outwards, creating a low moaning sound.

The effect was immediate. Killua jumped in the air, spinning to face the moaning body that _was supposed to be dead because goddammit, you don't live through getting your throat ripped out. _Before the shock could give way to horror, he turned back around at the sound of footsteps walking towards him.

Akumi had allowed some of the blood to splash onto her clothes, making her look just as bloody as Killua felt. Her face was lit up by a massive grin and had he not experienced it himself, he would have thought that she had killed the two examinees hers-

The sensation of something grabbing his ankle stopped his thought process before he could finish. Reacting on instinct, he kicked backwards, before moving his leg to the side to dislocate the arm socket. A hard tug forward created a sick ripping sound as he wrenched the arm off the body.

Akumi watched the scene, intently concentrating though she didn't show it. Getting the hand to grab Killua hadn't been as hard as making the corpse moan, but making all the fingers move together wasn't easy. And knowing that he would try to get the hand off of him, she had quickly gotten the blood to cut the major ligaments, making it easier to detach the limb.

The mad grin on her face had calmed down to a knowing smirk and, turning around she walked back the way she came, letting the blood drip onto the floor. Pausing before rounding the corner, she turned around and stared at Killua, who was still staring shell-shocked at her.

"Embrace it."

* * *

Akumi stared down the side of the tower, trying to guess if she would survive the fall or not. Screams interrupted her thought process and, turning to the right, she watched as an examinee was carried off by a flying beast. She continued to watch, amused when she saw the beast take a bite out of his shoulder. A second passed, and then she could hear the scream that had come from the applicant. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Killua stiffen. He looked like he was dead on his feet, though when the green boy, Gon talked to him, he put on a fake front.

_Don't try that, Killua, it'll only make things worse in the long run._

"That guy was eaten!" _Yes, thank you Mr. Ninja for stating_ _the obvious. _Ignoring the long speech that she knew was coming from his mouth, she peered over the edge. _Hmm, maybe I could make it. But would those birds come and eat me? _Grabbing an unfortunate examinee, she threw him over the edge, watching as he fell. Right before he hit the ground, a bird came flying out of nowhere, plucking him from his free fall. Ignoring the incredulous looks of everyone around her, she walked away from the edge, thinking of another way to get down while pacing.

_Hmmm, so I can't fall down unless I want hundreds of those birds attacking me. Where else cou- _Her foot went through on of the tiles and, looking down, she saw that it led to a room below. Lifting her foot out, she tapped the tile again, where it stayed firmly stuck. _So we get in through trap doors. _Looking up, she realized that several people had disappeared already including Hisoka and Hanzo.

She walked towards Illumi, and upon getting his attention, pushed down at a tile to her right. He immediately got the idea and, within moments, was subtly pushing down tiles with her.

'_What happened to Killua?' _

The nen flowed in front of her face, causing her to pause for a moment in her tapping.

"I gave him a spook last night. Seemed to affect him pretty badly." Seeing Illumi's questioning look, she elaborated. "He killed two examinees and I thought it would be fun for the corpses to grab his ankle while talking to me."

Without a word, Illumi shoved her forward, and the next moment, she was falling down one of the tiles into a room before.

"AHH! Who was that!?" Oh, **hell** no.

Akumi turned around, trying to keep her temper in check.

"So you're my partner for the third phase!"

_No Akumi, you can't stab him. No stabby stab. No. _

A few seconds passed as she reassessed her position.

_Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck fuck you Illumi. You fucking knew this was going to happ- _She stared down at the bracelet that he had just snapped onto her arm: **71:25**

That little fucker, Illumi, had pushed her into a room with Hanzo.

* * *

**Hehe, next chapter is going to be fun. Yes! We have reached Trick Tower! In case any of you guys need your memories jogged for this phase, applicants must reach the bottom of this tower within 3 days. I'm hoping that this can be done in a single chapter so we can move onto Zevil island, but we'll have to see as I'm frankly clueless as to how I'm gonna do this phase except for a few scenes. Just know that there will be much comic relief. Unless I just feel stabby that day... then we'll see.**

**Anyways... how are all my lovelies? I have to thank everyone here for sticking with me even though I disappeared off the earth for a while there. I sure as heck know that this next chapter won't take as long to publish as this one. Don't forget to review, favorite, and follow, and thank you to those that already have!**

**Stay fabulous.**


	10. A totally not disastrous parternership

As a quick note, "**bold text like this surrounded by quotation marks is through electronic communication, usually Lippo to the applicants." (Published May 10th, 2015)**

* * *

Akumi dispassionately observed the blood dripping from the three inch deep hole that she had punched into the brick wall before turning to the bald ninja that she was stuck in the room with.

"Okay, what's going on here?" she asked. Instead of replying, a speaker from the corner of the room answered.

"**My name is Lippo, the examiner for this phase. You will be taking the trial by partners. We will have all sorts of tests, ranging from agility, to strength, to puzzles and patience. Please continue through the path to your right. "**

The brick wall slid to the side, revealing a corridor lit by torches. _Hm, I wonder if I could kill the ninja and then bust my way to the bottom. _As if reading her mind, Lippo added on to his first statement.

"**Also, both you and your partner must survive this phase to pass."**

_Well, damn. There went that idea. _Walking down the corridor, she began observing her surroundings. Noticing the cameras in each corner lacking any blind spots, she extended her en outwards only to see that there wasn't anything else around them.

"So, what's your name?" Hanzo's voice interrupted her concentration, causing her nen to snap back towards her.

"Akumi." Before he could ask her any more questions, the pair entered a room containing nothing but two other people, hidden in the shadows.

"**You must defeat both prisoners to pass."**

The shackles restraining their feet and hands clattered to the ground, allowing them to step forward into the light and reveal the faces of a boy and girl.

"We are the Tsumura twins," said the girl who stood on the left. "We are here for arson and causing the deaths of over one hundred people. Our sentence is one hundred fifteen years and for every hour we delay you we get a year off our sentence. If you both die, we get seventy two years off. We are ready to start at any ti-"

Her voice cut off suddenly as a long red dagger appeared in the girl's forehead. Her brother stared, incredulous, as her body fell backwards with a loud thump. His gaze flew to the figure on the right who was twirling another dagger in her right hand.

"What?" Akumi asked, ignoring the shocked expression on the brother's face. "She said we could start at any time. I thought I would just hurry it up." She had to fight a grin that was trying to show itself on her face.

The brother, whose expression had morphed from shock to anger, grabbed the dagger that was lodged in his sister's forehead and charged. He slashed wildly, giving her ample time to disarm him, though she merely laughed at him while he continued to chase after her.

"Aw, is the little brother mad that his wittle sister got killed?" She taunted, putting on an exaggerated frowny face while dodging a stab to her face. Before he could take another swing, a blade stabbed through his chest from behind. He hung in the air for a moment, comically frozen before dropping to the ground, dead. Behind him stood Hanzo, whose face had taken on an uncharacteristically serious expression.

"We don't have time to play around like that," he said, before walking towards the exit. "There's no telling how long the other tests may take."

His complete change in personality left Akumi staring in confusion at him for a moment before continuing after him. _Did killing the prisoner really affect him that much?_

"What's the matter baldy?" She asked. "You look like someone who just found out that someone murdered your mother."

Hanzo paused, as if just realizing how serious he had begun to act. "Sorry," he said, turning around to reveal his normal grin. "Back in the village, we had to act super serious all the time back during training years. Force of habit I suppose."

"What exactly did you train for?" Akumi knew it could take a while before they got to the next area, so she decided to entertain herself for a while.

"Oh, ninja things." Like that was any description. As if sensing her annoyance, he continued. "Mainly things like staying hidden, sneaking up on people, weapons. That sort of stuff. What about you?"

She paused, thinking of an answer that would satisfy his curiosity without telling him too much. "All sorts of assassination techniques. Mostly combat oriented, though there was other stuff like poison and recon. The usual."

Hanzo began to reply, but she stopped paying attention when she felt nen in the air. Immediately, her senses expanded outward, trying to grasp for any clues as to what the cause was. Her eyes went to the wall, which upon inspection were covered in nen writing.

"**Partnerships are based on trust, where the best act like siblings and the worst like two enemies. Do you trust your partner? And do they trust you? You will be given the option at some point to severely handicap your partner. The choice is up to you. They do not know of this."**

She scowled at the message while her mind went into overdrive, trying to figure out the best scenario. _Ninja boy is strong enough that he'll realize something's up, even without the assistance of nen. Most likely, it'll be near the end of the tower. That means I'll have to build up trust up while I can._

Her eyes flew towards the camera placed in the corridor. She gave it a meaningful stare before turning back towards Hanzo, showing no indication of what had just transpired.

* * *

"Lippo," called one of the prisoners sitting in front of a screen. "Applicant 63 saw the message."

"Very good," he replied, turning his attention towards the monitor that showed the dysfunctional pair. "Thank you Gaho."

He continued studying the pair, taking note of the stare that 63 gave the camera before turning his attention to his own computer, where he began typing a message to Beans.

**Beans, applicant 63 has seen the message, and seems to have**

"Lippo?"

The man in question had to hold back a frustrated sigh as he turned his attention back towards Gaho, whose face was contorted in a way that suggested he was thinking too hard for his own good.

"Yes Gaho?"

"Why did you change up the outline for this trial?" Gaho paused, trying to come up with a way to word his question. "I mean, this was originally just a fighting trial, with multiple opponents attacking a pair of examinees. Why change it to include all of these complications and teamwork trials? And the message? Only one applicant knows nen, and it just..." He trailed off, letting the thoughts that were going through the other four aides' minds be voiced aloud.

Lippo, whose annoyance had quickly disappeared, turned his full attention towards Gaho. _It wouldn't do for them to learn of the small storm of interest that's bubbled around 63._

"Nen users tend to have their exam changed up a little bit," he lied. "Like how 44 is getting the combat section with the examiner from last year." He kept his voice normal, seeing if anyone would call him out on his fib. He hadn't changed anything for 301, the other nen user who had pins in his head. No one said anything about his lie, though the unspoken question still floated around in the air.

Ignoring the now-awkward atmosphere, Lippo restarted his message to Beans.

**At your request, applicant 63, Akumi Chisio, has seen the nen message that you told me to relay to her.**

He paused in his typing, hesitating as to whether or not he should ask why Beans wanted to test her morals when both of them were fairly confident of the outcome. After another moment of hesitation, he added another sentence to the message.

**Is there any particular reason why you wanted to test her morals when both of us are fairly confident in her lack of a moral compass?**

_Especially considering most of us are in agreement with Menchi that she burned her own parents and house to a crisp…_

"Who burned their parents to a crisp?!" cried Gaho, a look of incredulity on his face.

_Woops. Didn't mean to say that out loud._

He clicked the send button on the message before turning to Gaho, who looked like he was about to have a panic attack - which was odd considering that, if Lippo remembered correctly, was in the prison for being the interrogator to some bigshot mafia member.

"No one," Lippo said, giving Gaho a blank stare that said to shut up and do his work.

Apparently he didn't get the message. "No… you said they burned their house and parents to a crisp." He waved his arms around frantically, as if trying to dispel some imaginary flames. "It was that applicant wasn't it! Number 63! She's a crazy killer just like Togai!"

Togai, whose station was right beside Gaho, looked at the man with a slightly offended look on his face, before shrugging it off and going back to trying to kill an unlucky trio that had stumbled into the path of agility.

Lippo had to hold himself back from slamming his head into the keyboard in front of him out of frustration. He held up a hand, stopping Gaho who was now blubbering nonsense.

"Gaho," he began, enunciating each syllable in the prisoner's name. "Shut up and do your work." He would have said more, but a ding from his earpiece told him that a message from one of his important contacts had just arrived, saving Gaho from most likely being thrown back into his dingy little cell.

**Chairman still hasn't figured out the final phase yet, and he's just asked me to test the morals and likeability of applicants that will most likely to make it to the final phase. I've been trying to get him to plan out the final phase but you know how he is. I'm pretty sure he's sleeping right now.**

A quick glance at the clock showed that it was way past any decent time that someone should be sleeping. Leaning back in his chair, Lippo turned his attention back to the monitor with Applicant 63 on it, who had just entered the the room to the second part of the trial. He grabbed a hardcopy of the script before flipping the microphone on.

* * *

**Welcome to the next part of your trial by partnerships. In front of you is a pair of handcuffs, which you will use to chain yourself to your partner. You will then climb down the ladder and begin the agility and teamwork section.**

Akumi paused in her mental musings of ways to murder the ninja beside her, reaching for the handcuffs. They were made of the same material that the watches were made of, and a quick glance with the use of gyo showed a thin nen coating that protected them from breaking. The chain was a meter long; plenty of room to move around, but still short enough where they would both have to be mindful of each other in order to prevent dislocating an arm or wrist.

Hanzo stared thoughtfully at the cuffs before turning to Akumi once again.

"Left or right handed?" he asked, holding both arms up to demonstrate his point.

"I throw with my right hand," Akumi said, procuring a dagger out of nowhere and tossing it in the air.

"I do too. That's a pro-" He stopped mid-speed, eyes widening at a sudden revelation. He turned towards the corner to their right, addressing the speaker that was nestled tightly against the wall, "Oi, examiner guy, you never said anything about what body part we chain, correct?"

Taking the lack of an answer as confirmation, Hanzo locked one handcuff around his left ankle, handing the other end to Akumi to put on. After clicking the lock shut, the pedestal that held the handcuffs was replaced by a ladder going down.

"How are supposed to get down that with our ankles attached? Neither of us are short enough." Akumi looked down the ladder, hoping that they could jump together, but all she saw was a deep pit with no bottom that she could see. Hanzo peeked over her shoulder and, seeing the same thing she was, abandoned the same idea that she had.

"Wait," he said, snapping his fingers and pointing to Akumi. "I have an idea."

…

"Move back, you're crushing me," Akumi said, trying her hardest to not touch her back against Hanzo's chest as they climbed down the ladder.

"If I move any further back, I'm gonna fall off." He replied, glancing downwards to see if they had arrived close enough to the bottom to jump. They hadn't. Akumi snorted inelegantly.

"Well you can either back off or turn your head, because if I feel your breath on my neck one more time, you'll find yourself without lungs to breathe with."

The bickering pair of applicants were slowly making their way down the ladder by sandwiching Akumi between Hanzo and the ladder, enabling both of them to climb down at the same time with the short chain between them.

"This would be so much easier if you would stop complaining. It's not like any other way would have worked; you're barely five feet tall and I'm almost six feet."

"Fuck off, I'm five foot two, thank you very much."

* * *

Lippo stared bored at his screen, eyes flickering every once and a while to the large countdown in the front of the room. **71:02:54**

"Sir," said Gaho. "Applicants 63 and 294 have almost reached the bottom of the ladder."

"I want the controls, Gaho," Lippo said, pulling up the pair on his center monitor. "You keep watch on 44."

He watched carefully as the pair jumped the last five meters, landing in synch on the floor. _Even though there's a great deal of animosity between them, after twenty minutes together, they've already managed to begin working together better than some in weeks of each other's company._

He opened up the command script for the ten kilometer sprint down the tower, thankful once again for having a spatial nen manipulator to adjust the dimensions of certain paths down the tower, such as this one, which would move them in a slow, narrow spiral down almost a third of the outer sector of the tower, and having them run down a tall, straight corridor through the inner sector. Selecting a five by five meter square directly in front of the pair, he typed in the first command. **Floor: spikes, two meters**

* * *

The only thing that saved Hanzo from being skewered through the torso was Akumi stumbling when he began an eager sprint down the corridor. The chain on the cuffs went taut as Akumi's right leg slid out from beneath her, causing Hanzo to trip and fall face first. Suddenly, he felt wind whistle past his bald head, and looking up, he saw a row of spikes barely ten centimeters away from his face.

Akumi watched as the spikes retracted back into the ground, eyes peeled for another trap. "That was a close call baldie. Car-"

She was cut off as a line of darts flew her way, which she barely dodged, leaving a vertical line in the wall behind her. A quick look with gyo showed that the entire room was doused with _in_, nen that was invisible to a user unless gyo was used.

"Well shit," she said, helping Hanzo up while keeping watch around them. "What's next? Giant swinging axes from the ceiling?"

A jolly Lippo answered her from a speaker that was attached to her watch.

"**Not quite."**

The next thing Hanzo saw was the floor splitting open to reveal a pit before Akumi pulled him against the wall, barely missing an axe that came swinging from a pit in the ground that hadn't been there five seconds ago.

"What the fuck are you tryi- SHIT!" Akumi was cut off when the pit suddenly burst into flames, leaving both her and Hanzo slightly singed. She had the time to flip off the camera that she knew was somewhere, before running off at a dead sprint, Hanzo close on her heels.

Some part of her processed the sound of laughter from the speaker on her wrist, but the thought was quickly dismissed as a barrage of arrows flew towards them. She and Hanzo flew opposite ways, only to crash to the ground as the chain was pulled tight. Hanzo was lucky and managed to avoid any damage, but Akumi only had enough time to throw up a hasty _ko_ in her left arm to shield it from the nen coated arrow that stabbed into it almost instantly afterwards. Expecting the arrow to leave only a small scratch after being guarded by her nen, she wasn't prepared when it almost went completely through the bicep, the foot long shaft several inches deep in her arm.

Ignoring the pain, she broke off the shaft and pulled it out, ignoring the wet sound that it made as it slid free of her flesh.. She took a few precious seconds to let the blood flow outward and form a thin layer over the hole that that would hopefully protect her, though she was doubtful her blood shield could stop it completely if her _ko_, hasty though it had been, had barely stopped it from going completely through.

They both got up and kept running, an understanding passing between them. The time for bickering was over, and the only communication needed between them were simple gestures with the occasional exclamation as an obstacle came their way. After evading more lethal traps than there were in the Zoldyck basement, they came to a stop a maze of wires running horizontally in front of them.

Turning around, she saw that the last thing they were running from – a giant boulder – had disappeared, allowing them a small respite.

"I guess we have to get through this," Hanzo said, wiping off the small amount of sweat that had beaded across his skin when fireballs had started flying towards them.

"Don't touch the wires," Akumi said, watching as one of Illumi's needles was sliced cleanly in two when she pressed it against the cable. Turning around, she had to stop herself from yelling out expletives towards the examiner when she saw that a wall had appeared behind them and was slowly moving towards them. "Shit, the wall's moving, we have to go."

After turning around and having to hold back a swear himself, Hanzo followed after Akumi, moving between wires and trying not to get cut.

"How long do you think we've been running?" He asked, staring back at the wall, which was slowly closing the distance between them.

"I think somewhere along five kilometers." She looked down to check the watch. "All in around twenty minutes. The clock says 70:39."

"How long do you think the maze is?" Hanzo asked, looking back at the wall. They had started the maze with a ten meter distance between them and the wall. They were two minutes into into the maze of wire and he swore that the wall had already eaten up half a meter of space.

"Too long," Akumi said, looking back at the wall. She didn't see an end to the wires, and the wall was slowly catching up. "We need to hurry."

She sped up, forcing Hanzo behind her to match her pace. More time passed, and shallow cuts began accumulating across their skin. They eventually reached a small space inside the maze where they could both pause, and while they were in it, the wall forcing them forward seemed to have stopped.

Hanzo began tying the more severe cuts up with some spare cloth while Akumi concentrated on the blood she was slowly losing. Normally, she would have been able to stop hundreds of cuts from bleeding at the same time, but she had also been running a thirty meter diameter of en around them since almost being skewered by another volley of arrows. She was confident that nothing else was there except for the wires, but she would have already lost her arms on more than several occasions to wires that she had missed. She wasn't able to keep up the en, gyo, and move quickly through the wires without injury.

Hanzo watched in slight fascination as a red coating began to cover both of his partner's arms and legs. He was about to question what was happening in front of him, when Akumi began to speak.

"Hanzo, given the circumstances we're in, where neither of us are allowed to kill the other, do you trust me?" She had a calculating look on her face and was looking at one of the deeper cuts on her right arm instead of at his face.

He took a moment to pause and assess the situation. "Well, that depends. What do you want to do?"

She paused, trying to think of how to properly explain her blood manipulation nen without confusing him, while still managing to keep her skills mostly in the dark. "At the speed we're going, we're gonna get cut up into pieces by the wall and wires before we're even close to finishing. We have to move faster, but right now that's impossible without cutting off something important."

Hanzo gave a nod, and made a gesture for her to carry on.

"I have an…" she trailed off for a moment, feeling the hairs on her neck raise when she thought of saying nen. "... ability, where I can protect the skin from being split open as badly. The wire is too sharp to protect us completely, but it will stop the most severe cuts."

"So a shield? Like the stuff you're covered in?" he asked, gesturing towards the red layer on her.

She glanced down before shaking her head. "Not like that. I don't have enough focus right now for that. Think of it as a reinforcement to your skin."

She watched as Hanzo pondered over the problem, before being given a small nod.

"Okay, what do we have to do?" He asked, taking a step backwards when she pulled out a long dagger. "Whoa, what ar-"

"Calm down. It's only transferable by blood. Give me a sec." She paused, searching for one of the larger injuries on her. Finding a large one on her right bicep, she let the layer of blood retract from that area and moved most of the nen in her reserves in the blood surrounding the gash. "I need to cut open your arm." Seeing the expression on his face, she added on to her statement. "I need a large opening to work with, and it's the best position."

She held the knife up in the air while waiting for his arm. Giving her his left arm, he watched as Akumi sliced a thin but deep cut going from his elbow to right below his wrist.

Cutting up Hanzo was risky business- way riskier than she had hinted towards. Her blood was naturally type B, and if he didn't also have type B blood, then the blood wouldn't mix and his body would reject it, most likely killing him in the process by bleeding out through the long cut in his arm. She also had to focus on the nen inside his bloodstream in order to have it clot the wound. Otherwise, he would bleed out anyways.

She also couldn't just inject straight nen into his bloodstream. Nen was specific to each person and as volatile as hers was, it would cause him to go into shock and seizures before dying. The one time she had done that on a mission as an experiment, Illumi had almost shot ten needles into her face for doing it. The guy she had done it to wasn't even their target and didn't stop screaming for an hour and completely blew their cover. So she didn't do that anymore.

She tested Hanzo's blood type for a second, panicking. _Shit. Of fucking course, he has type O blood, the rarest type. Okay, it's been years since you tried this Akumi. Change the blood type as it flows between your cut and his. No big problem, just gotta change the chemical composition of almost ten percent of your blood. No probs. _She ignored the voice in the back of her mind that told her she was gonna kill the guy.

As if sensing her panic, Hanzo opened his mouth to say something, only to be interrupted by Akumi, who spoke through gritted teeth.

"Don't… say anything. I need to… concentrate." She felt a sweat breaking out. It had been a long time since anything had caused her to panic like this. The last time was when she had taken some of Illumi's needles and built a pyramid out of them, only to be caught and forced to run around as he threw his entire collection of them at her. He had a very large collection.

The first few drops fluctuated between something that wasn't even considered a blood type, and the ones following were only slightly better. After a few tense moments, she managed to get something close enough to type O that it wouldn't kill him, though she was sure that his body wouldn't be happy for the next few days.

_I've spent almost fifteen percent of my blood already. I'm gonna have to be careful. I usually pass out somewhere along the twenty percent mark._

After feeling the lightheadedness that was often associated with blood loss, Akumi stopped the blood and let her blood shield cover the wound up, before looking up at Hanzo.

"You're probably going to feel weird," she said, noticing the slight grimace on his face. "That's what happens after you get a blood transfusion. We'll have to wait ten minutes for everything to spread out, and then we're starting back up. "

After ensuring that the blood had spread out to protect most of his body, she started moving again. As soon as they both left the small sanctuary in the middle of the wires, they heard the sound of stone against stone as the wall reappeared… half a meter behind them.

"FUCK, RUN!" she yelled, and began weaving between the wires at a breakneck speed. Dizziness forgotten, adrenaline began to pump into her system, and she let her instincts guide her through the maze of wire. Hanzo was right behind her, focused purely on weaving through the small openings.

After putting enough distance between them and the moving wall that they weren't in immediate danger of being sliced to bits, Akumi took a glance at her watch. **70:03 **She looked behind her towards Hanzo to see that he wasn't faring too well. Though the blood had helped strengthen the blood vessels and in turn protect the skin, he was still covered in cuts, many of which were still bleeding. The wall was now a safe five meters away, and the adrenaline was finally making its way out of her system, letting the dizziness come back in full force.

"Is that… movement?" Hanzo pointed a finger in front of her face. Following his line of sight, she saw a small glimmer as something moved off in the distance. _If we have to fight in this, we might as well kiss our asses goodbye._

They approached cautiously, letting the wall behind them close the distance from five meters to two.

"Are you serious?" she asked, upon seeing the source of the movement. No, she would take fighting in the wire maze over this any day.

"The wires are moving?!" Hanzo looked like he was ready to punch the wall as he saw the scene in front of him. Sure, there were barely a third the amount of wires as behind them, but one wrong calculation would definitely leave them missing a limb.

"Wait," he said, turning back around. "Where did the wall go?"

Turning around to confirm his statement, she tapped the screen of the watch, which now read **69:47**.

"Hey, examiner guy, what happened to the wall?"

"**It's gone. You just have to go through this part." **That voice was way too happy for her liking. "**Don't lose an arm!"**

She let a growl of frustration out before looking up at the wires. They weren't moving too fast, but they still let out a small whistling noise as they passed her.

"Well, looks like we're running again," she said, turning towards Hanzo, who had taken the break to tie up some of his cuts. He had more skin covered by makeshift bandages than not at that point. They began running through the wires.

Things had been going fine as the two managed to move together and avoid the wires, until the chain connecting them screwed them over. They had managed to work out moving together with the chain while dodging a section with flying fireballs before the wires, and now moved without paying much mind to it.

A wire that was going vertically came towards them, and Hanzo sidestepped it, allowing to go between them. At least until it hit the chain. For half a second, Akumi had the vain hope that it would cut through the chain or stop, but that hope quickly vanished when her right leg disappeared from under her, dragging her backwards on her back. She heard a thud as Hanzo fell down beside her, and they were quickly being dragged towards a wire that would definitely cut her through the middle.

Hanzo clawed at the uneven ground, trying to find a hand hold, before gathering his senses and flipping on his back, digging in the blades hidden under his wrists to stop him. Meanwhile, Akumi managed to get the blood that still covered her entire body seep into the ground, before making it solid, effectively gluing her in place.

The only other wire that was in the immediately vicinity was the one moving from side to side above them, which wouldn't hurt them as long as they didn't stand up. They were in a stalemate, the vertical wire continuously pushing forwards, only held back by the combined strength of the two.

"Akumi, I can't move," Hanzo said, eyes focused on the wire a meter away that would easily cut him in half.

Silence met his statement, as Akumi's mind raced to figure out what to do, still on her back. She glanced from the wire to the ground and back again.

"I have an idea…" she said. "But it's insane."

"We don't have a choice at the moment."

"Point taken. Hold on tight."

After seeing him tense up, she slowly began to sit up, the blood on her back moving to her bottom to keep her in place. She was sitting straight up, her knees bent to hold her back. If she took any blood from her bottom, she would lose her grip and go sliding before being cut to ribbons while if she took the amount of blood she was going to need from her bloodstream, she was sure to pass out.

"Hanzo, I'm gonna need to hold onto your shoulder for a minute." Not waiting for a response, she reached her hand out onto the cut before pulling the blood that was hers out from him.

"Akumi, what are yo-"

"Hanzo shut up. I'm trying to save our lives."

The blood she pulled out was enough to create a two centimeter thick glove around her right hand. Shifting her weight onto her feet, she let the blood holding her to the ground move to just her soles, creating a thick layer that went deep into the ground to hold her in place.

She grabbed the wire, forcing the blood to become as dense as possible and focus on her palm and inside of her fingers. And then, she slowly began moving.

* * *

"Uh Lippo sir?" Gaho said, turning to face the man. "Your eyes are super big right now."

Lippo ignore Gaho, more focused on trying to not let his jaw drop as he watched Akumi Chisio _hold the wire in place with her hands. _Once he had managed to snag the wire between her and applicant 294, he was sure that it was game over for them, and though they had managed to grab the ground like that, he had never thought they would get out of it. Until Akumi had grabbed the wire without hesitation and held it in place.

He watched in shock at his monitor as she walked around the wire, the blood she was manipulating under her feet cementing each step while she held the wire in place with her hands. He had been impressed by the blood transfusion, shocked at watching her pull blood from her partner, and now he was straight up floored that she had the strength and nen ability to make her blood strong enough to hold back the wire, the wire that could cut through bone, metal, and diamond with little resistance.

_Oh she's good. That girl is good._

* * *

After escaping her closest brush with death since threatening Illumi with using Killua as a training dummy, Akumi and Hanzo moved through the rest of the wire maze with ease, their close call making them more focused than ever. After reaching the end, the chain attaching them together fell to the ground, no longer binding them.

"I'M FREE, BITCHES!" she yelled, before grabbing the chain and throwing it back in the corridor of hell and wire.

Hanzo let a small grin appear on his face, before letting out a tired laugh. "Well that was rather intense. I didn't expect that to be as bad as it was. Thanks for saving my ass back there."

She was about to reply when Lippo interrupted her, his voice coming through the watch, which now read **69:03**.

"**Congratulations on making it through there, though you did have one close call. The next trial tests your logic. Continue through the door on your left."**

She noticed two large doors, one on each side, though she was sure that they hadn't been there before. Hanzo was thinking the same thing, and began speaking.

"Hey, there are two doors though! What are we supposed to do?"

They both waited for an answer, though they were only met with silence from the bracelet. Shrugging, Akumi turned to the left and opened the door, walking through it with Hanzo right behind her. After closing the door, they were greeted by a long corridor that had a sharp right turn in it. Before they could move forward, Lippo began talking again.

"**Congratulations!"**

"Wait," Akumi said. "That was the test of logic?! Knowing our right and left!"

"**You might be surprised with how bad most people's sense of direction is."**

"But that's it?!"

"**Of course not, you imbecile. I just had to make sure you knew that first."**

Before she could comment on the fact that she had just been called an imbecile, Hanzo began dragging her forward, ignoring the yells of protest coming from her.

The pair turned the corner and entered a large room, with seven prisoners standing still and a door behind them with a lock.

"Welcome," the first one said, face hidden by a cloak. "This is the test of logic. One of us holds the key, and all the others don't. It's your job to figure out who."

The last one in line then began to speak. "Three of us lie, four of us tell the truth."

Lippo joined in the conversation. **"The first and last ones both tell the truth. That's the only thing I can tell you."**

The last one continued. "The key is hidden somewhere on one of us. You may only ask for it from one person. If you ask the wrong person, we will all randomly switch roles and give the key to someone else and you will have to start over. We will each go down the line now."

The first one stepped back up. "I tell the truth. The key belongs to neither the arsonist nor the stalker. I have killed people."

The second one stepped up. "I grew up in a small town and loved chemistry. Three is a filthy liar."

The prisoners continued down the line, each one's explanation even more confusing than the last, until the eighth one began speaking and didn't stop for a full five minutes.

"We will repeat any information needed but we won't answer any questions other than clarification," said the first one before falling silent.

Akumi stared at the group in front of them in disbelief. Neither of them could figure this out in a year, much less… she checked her watch again. **...68:41**

She looked over to Hanzo to see if he was doing any better, somewhat surprised to find him muttering to himself while writing notes on the ground. "Oi, Akumi. I got this; we had to do puzzles all the time as part of shinobi training."

Needing no other explanations, Akumi sat on the ground and started calculating blood loss. _I'm probably at eighteen percent and at this point, judging from how tired and dizzy I am, I don't think I'll be of much use if shit hits the fan again. Guess I'll have to do __**that.**_ And so, while Hanzo was occasionally popping a question towards the prisoners and taking notes, Akumi cut open her wrists and let the blood pour to the ground.

"Oh, Hanzo," she said. He gave a grunt in response but didn't look up. "I'm gonna pass out on you, but I'll be up and at it in around an hour. Ignore the giant pool of blood around me." That seemed to catch his attention. He turned around, only to see his partner he needed to survive in order to pass the third phase pale white and sitting in the middle of a puddle of her own blood.

She closed her eyes and let the darkness take her. _I'm tired._

* * *

"LIPPO!" Gaho had been watching 63 and 294 in the puzzle room while Lippo had gone to get coffee, only to find that 63 had cut one wrist wide open and had already started on the next. "LIPPO. 63 IS TRYING TO KILL HERSELF OH MY GOD WHAT DO WE DO THIS ISN'T SUPPO-"

Gaho was silenced as Lippo threw his jumbo thirty-two ounce mug of coffee at him to shut him up, before rushing to the computer and dialing Bean's number.

"Play back the footage! I want audio on the main speaker!" The monitor in front of him showed the live feed while the main one showed the recording that was being played back. _What the hell is going on? She might be a psychopath, but I didn't think she was this mentally unstable._

Beans answered the phone while Lippo was typing away frantically. "_**What is it?"**_

"Beans, I need a psych evaluation of Akumi Chisio immediately."

"_**What happened?"**_

"She just cut her wrists open and is now bleeding out over the floor." He heard the sound of the phone clattering to the ground followed by sound of someone three feet tall sprinting out of a room.

He looked down towards the live feed to see Akumi saying something while seeming unconcerned that she was bleeding out. _I know she manipulates blood, which is obvious from the last trial, but what is she doing getting rid of it? She's lost… probably twenty-five percent at this point. Anything around forty and she'll die._

Lippo called out more commands. "Play the audio back from when she was talking! One minute rewind!"

"_I'll be up and at it in around an hour. Ignore the pool of blood around me." _Lippo's panic stopped dead in its tracks.

"I need a nen recording of what just happened now!" Immediately, a video popped up on the screen. A quick glance at the live feed showed 294 shaking the limp body. _Blood loss most likely at thirty percent._

His mailbox popped up, indicating that the prisoner in the puzzle room was asking what happened. He sent it to Gaho to answer for him before watching the nen video feed. After cutting her wrists, he watched as her ten got weaker and weaker, before disappearing completely. _Holy shit, did she actually kill herself? _He looked at the puddle, and fast-forwarded the video to current time. _Thirty-five percent blood loss._

"_Lippo, its Beans. Just got the psych evaluator. Says she shouldn't be suicidal."_

Lippo, meanwhile, was ignoring Beans, eyes wide in amazement. A wave of nen had _exploded _from her body, so much that so that half a second later, he could feel it from above. 294 was thrown backwards, along with all the other convicts in the room. They hit the walls, instantly knocked out upon impact. The only one that didn't pass out was the fourth prisoner, but they still sat in the corner, dazed as they tried to regain their bearings.

"Lip-"

"Gaho."

"Yes sir?"

"Shut up."

* * *

Akumi slowly came back into consciousness, stock still as she took in her surroundings. She could hear the sounds of steady breathing, and the smell of blood surrounded her. The sound of soft snoring caused her eyes to snap open, revealing Hanzo to be out cold.

She tried getting up, only to realize that she was surrounded in a pool of drying blood.

She turned, facing one of the prisoners that was against the wall. She recognized them as the one that did the introduction in the beginning of the trial. She walked over and squatted down to the ground, waiting patiently as they woke up.

"Morning sunshine," she sang, poking them in the nose in the process. The prisoner, who she realized was a girl, slowly opened her eyes, only to give a start as she saw Akumi right in front of her face. "What's your name?"

"M-Mei," she said, eyes trained on the ground where blood had congealed.

"Well M-Mei," Akumi gave a grin as she laughed at her own little joke. Mei had to stop herself from cowering in fear. "Tell me this. Is there really a key?"

The girl paused, staring for a wide eyed moment at Akumi before nodding her head vigorously.

"And who might have it?"

"I d-d-don't know."

Akumi let out a sigh of frustration, before flicking a knife in front of the girl's face.

"I'm gonna ask again. Where. Is. The. Key."

She stared in fear at the knife while words spilled from her mouth. "I don't know! Kensu was supposed to have it pop up magically at some point but he wouldn't tell us how! He would say it was magic! Don't kill me!"

"Well, I'll get to Kensu at some point. Why are you here in this prison?"

"I just stole a lot of money from the sparkly guy and he got really mad! I don't know why they stuck me with murders!" Mei was close to tears as Akumi began twirling the knife in her fingers. "But Kensu won't give you the key unless you solve the puzzle! Mr. Examiner guy told him that he would let us both out if we could delay you until the end of the seventy-two hours. Broth-"

She clamped her mouth shut as she realized what she had just slipped up on.

"Oh," Akumi said curiously, tilting her head to the side. "Your brother is Kensu? Well that makes it easier!"

At this point the other prisoners were all fully awake and listening intently to the conversation.

"Okay Kensu, where are you? Come out before I kill your sister here."

Mei's eyes bulged open and she tried to escape, only to be pushed back down to the ground onto her stomach after trying to get to her knees. Akumi sat casually on top of her back while picking off a flake of blood that was on her shirt, though it was completely soaked in it.

Seeing that the brother wasn't going to answer, she grabbed Mei's right hand and created a small cut in her pinky. Cutting open her own pinky, she let nen slowly flow from her to the girl. Immediately, Mei began thrashing, feeling the malicious nen flow quickly through her bloodstream. Akumi stayed sitting on top, bored as she watched Mei try and relieve the pain. She stopped the nen when it reached the girl's arm, allowing the girl a small respite. Mei turned her face upwards towards one of the prisoners in the corner.

"HELP ME BROT-" She was cut off as Akumi got her answer, letting the nen continue through the girl's body and causing the sister to cut off mid-scream as her system began to shut down.

Akumi turned towards the older boy who she assumed was Kensu. She could see the look in his eyes as he stared at his sister, who was still laying on the ground underneath Akumi, convulsing every once and while. They were the exact same as hers: cold, calculating, and lacking any sympathy.

"I'm guessing that you aren't going to help your sister from the look that you have on your face." Akumi said, getting up as Mei's body slowly stopped twitching.

"Damn right," he said, giving a maniacal little grin. "She's the reason we got stuck in this place to begin with. Fell on her face while running from security and took me down with her."

"I get it. Sibling problems are a pain in the ass sometimes."

"Yeah. Anyways, I can conjure the key. Can you that body to stop twitching? I can't concentrate with that thing moving."

Shrugging at the request, Akumi stabbed down into the spinal cord with the knife she still had in her hand. Immediately, Mei's body went limp. Akumi stared at it for a single moment before looking up, only to see that Kensu had a blade sticking out the pit of his stomach. Behind him stood a prisoner with a deranged look in his eyes.

"How could you kill your own sis-" He was cut off as Akumi threw her dagger between his eyes, watching as he dropped dead.

"Come on!" she yelled, raising her arms in exasperation. "You had to stab him before I got the key. Lippo, why the hell am I with all the crazies?" She ignored the fact that she was one of those crazies too.

Seeing that it was too late for the brother to do anything of use, she left him on the ground, walking towards the lock on the door.

"Oh you've gotta be kidding me. I've wasted," she looked down at the watch, "nearly an hour in here." She had expected the key to be some weird contraption, or a large tile. What she didn't expect was an old fashion padlock that she could open in seconds. She kicked out in frustration, accidentally cracking through the skull of one of the prisoners.

She walked over to the nearest puddle of blood and let some of her nen flow into it, before directing a thin, coiling stream of blood into the keyhole, where it adjusted its shape to the inner workings of the lock. Her key formed, Akumi turned the solidified blood and opened the door, moving to walk through it before the crackle of a speaker stopped her.

"**Forgetting someone?"**

She paused, before running back to the unconscious form of Hanzo. She poked his cheek, trying to wake him up quietly. Unsuccessful, she then gleefully slapped him across the face.

The effect was immediate. Hanzo jumped, slashing upwards before even opening his eyes. She caught it with a nen-reinforced hand, shaking his arm back and forth.

"Come on dumbass, time's a wastin'." He blinked for a moment in confusion, before

letting an embarrassed grin appear on his face.

"Sorry, I'm getting …" He trailed off, seeing the scene in front of him, which was composed of four corpses, one with a dagger in its head and another one without any head at all, and two others face down on the ground in puddles of blood. "...had some fun while I was asleep?"

Giving him a bright smile that was only reserved for use after her "fun" sessions, she nodded before skipping out of the room, Hanzo trailing close behind.

* * *

Lippo was at the edge of his seat, tufts of his purple hair in his hands as he stared at his monitor. Akumi and Hanzo had passed all his tests with flying colors, and were nearing the bottom of the tower and the clock only said **66:31**. After Akumi had managed to get the pair out of the wire maze, he had taken it as a personal challenge, and had thrown everything at them. The maze that had taken days to construct was finished in barely an hour thanks to Akumi's en, and the duo was currently breezing through the combatants.

Gaho interrupted his mental rant. "Sir, an applicant has reached the agility section. What do you want to do wi-"

"KILL HIM, I DON'T CARE. I'M NOT LOSING TO THEM." Shrugging his shoulders, Gaho turned back to the monitor, throwing volleys of arrows at the unfortunate examinee.

Lippo turned back to the monitors, only to see Akumi dancing around her opponent while Hanzo snuck up and stabbed them in the back.

He snapped.

* * *

Frankly, Akumi was getting bored. They had faced their third serial killer in a long line of combatants, and both were getting somewhat fed up at the repetitiveness of it all. The pair was standing in a room composed of only a platform in the middle of a deep pit. She stepped over the most recent corpse- formerly a war criminal- and began to follow Hanzo down the stairs, only to be interrupted by the Lippo.

"**The next fight is your final one before clearing the tower."**

"Finally!" She exclaimed, leaping in the air. "Are we going to finally get something interesting?"

"**I hope that you will find it so."**

She could hear the barely concealed irritation in his voice, and let a grin appear on her face. Hanzo stopped as he turned the corner, Akumi barely managing to stop herself from crashing into him. She stood on her toes, peeking over his shoulder to see what had caused him to stop.

"Oh shit," she said, first quietly before growing in volume. "shit, shit, SHIT!" She grabbed onto Hanzo's collar before running back up the stairs and through a corridor towards the room they were at before, a stampede of heavily armed combatants on their tails. Normally this would just be a bit of sporty fun, except that from each of them Akumi could sense an aura of nen.

"WHAT THE HELL LIPPO?" she yelled, cutting open both wrists to let blood cover the ground of the hallway. "THIS ISN'T INTERESTING, THIS IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS!"

The stampede of fighters turned the corner, only to be stopped as the blood on the floor shot up into spikes, surprising the first few. The rest managed to guard themselves with nen, barely slowing down. _Three down, twelve left. _She turned to see Hanzo preparing to charge. _He won't stand a chance against nen users, no matter how good of a fighter he is. And he has to survive for me to pass. _

"Sorry Hanzo," she muttered, kicking him in the side of the head, managing to knock him out in a single blow. She saw his eyes widen in surprise, before closing shut as he tumbled to the ground. She caught him before he could tumble off the ledge to the pit below and left him on the ground, moving to stand in the middle of the room.

She let the blood on her hands form into sharp claws before stabbing through the chest of her first opponent and throwing him over the ledge. She needed to keep the floor clear when fighting this many nen users.

The next one came at her, beams of nen shooting from his hands as he tried to burn a hole through her center. She jumped to the side, grabbing onto another opponent and using him as a shield before throwing the now burned corpse at him, kicking both of them over the edge.

Two others came up from behind her and grabbed her arms, muscles flexing as they tried to snap the bones in half. The claws immediately morphed into liquid to cover her skin, hardening to form a thick shell around her arms before they could successfully break them. She ripped her left arm out of the man's grip before he went tumbling over the edge, the other one following closely behind.

Barely a moment later, a deep gash appeared in Akumi's side as a conjured katana was swung at her, followed by another one. She raised her arms, the blood shield protecting her from the downward strike, only to slowly melt away as the corrosive aura of the left katana ate away at the hardened blood. Holding back a curse, she jumped back only to be caught by another opponent, who wrapped their arms around her before losing a head to a knife in her right hand.

She ripped out three piercings in her right ear and formed three whips, using them to grab onto the acid-covered katana before forming a glove to grab hold of the other one. Using her forward momentum, she tackled him off the ledge, both of them tumbling through the air, before the three whips dug into the side of the wall, stopping her fall.

She climbed back up, peeking over the edge to see the remaining five nen users surrounding the unconscious form of Hanzo. Holding on with her arms, she grabbed ahold of three of the fighters' ankles with her whips and pulled them over the edge. The two that were left quickly backed up, before standing in the opposite corner.

Akumi's eyes narrowed as she took in her opponents, a man and a woman. These two were much stronger than the rest, and she knew that simple tricks like before wouldn't work on them. Controlling all of her blood outside her body, she separated it into marble sized spheres and then condensed them so that they were rock solid. A red cloud of blood bullets surrounded her before rushing towards her opponents, who were reinforcing the ken around themselves.

The blood bullets crashed into the pair, unable to break the defenses, though they did throw the two nen users around some. Akumi forced the bullets to move faster, concentrating fully on speeding up the projectiles. Time passed, one minute after the other as Akumi forced the bullets to go faster and faster. The battle had slowly turned from a battle of combat to a battle in endurance. And she had no idea who would win.

She felt sweat starting to accumulate as she realized that they were at a stalemate. Apparently her opponents did too. The woman, in a split second decision, sprinted forward and, ignoring the bullets, crashed straight into Akumi. They both tumbled over the edge, Akumi barely managing to grab onto a handhold that whipped past her face.

She let herself breathe out a small sigh of relief. She could handle broken bones, cuts, even internal damage. But turning into a pancake against the ground? That was something that went beyond her nen abilities. A normal fall, she could survive; she could have lived jumping from the top of Trick Tower. But she knew Lippo had come up with some way to counteract her jumping to the bottom, and she wasn't stupid to find out what that was.

A hand grabbed her right ankle, forcing her to look down to see that her opponent had managed to grab a different hand hold and was trying to take Akumi down with her. She kicked out with her leg, wincing when she felt her ankle crack when the woman tightened her grip on it.

Looking up, she saw her opponent's partner standing above her, gathering nen into his hand. _Of course, I have to be fighting an emitter. _She glanced down to see a very nasty looking needle in the girl's hand. _And apparently a manipulator. _She lifted her right foot before smashing in the girl's head with her left boot. With a long screech, the girl dropped.

Not sparing a moment to enjoy the sound, Akumi summoned her blood – which was still floating in the air – to fly back to her and form a large shield in front of her just as a huge ball of nen barrelled straight towards her face. There was an explosion of red mist as the nen collided, but her shield held firm. Then, forming claws, she quickly climbed up the side of the platform, only to have another ball of nen staring her straight in the face upon arriving at the top.

She barely had the time to awkwardly dodge sideways, her legs still over the edge. Another one flew towards her, only this time aiming to take the platform itself. Finally managing to stand up, she jumped upwards, grabbing ahold of the man's arm and throwing him as hard as possible. She watched as he crashed into the wall with a sickening crack, forming a crater before his body fell into the abyss below.

Letting out a breath that she didn't know she was holding, Akumi walked over to a puddle of blood on the ground and focusing her nen into it, before moving it to Hanzo's unconscious form. Letting it form a mesh underneath him, she flicked her hand, the blood floating in the air to carry Hanzo in a makeshift litter.

She let out a small noise of annoyance upon lifting him. Even though she wasn't carrying him, she could still feel how heavy he was.

"Damn baldie," she muttered, beginning to walk out of the room, Hanzo's floating form behind her. "I think you need to lay off of the sushi."

Instead of receiving a reply from Hanzo – not that she should have. That kick would have him knocked out for at least half an hour – Lippo answered her. "**Well, Akumi, it seems you handled that well enough."**

She made a rude noise before giving the universal 'fuck you' sign. "Well enough that I've lost almost fifteen percent of my blood, sure."

He ignored the gesture. "**In any event, you will soon be passing an empty room to your right." **

Sure enough, Akumi could see an opening in the corridor. She gave a noise of confirmation, not paying much attention. Lippo had said that the previous free-for-all had been the last test, so she was just waiting to get out of the damned tower.

"**You have the choice of depositing your unconscious partner in the elevator, which will take him to the top of the tower where he will have to go through an entirely new trial. This will not impact you in any way for finishing the tower, and continuing down the corridor will reveal the exit."**

Akumi stopped, turning to the elevator that was to her right and looking between it and Hanzo. When she was told of the opportunity to betray her partner, she had assumed that she would do it. But now... _Dammit baldie, you were actually useful. _

She tilted her head to the right, weighing the pros and cons. _If I force you back to the top of the tower, it will most likely get rid of you as competition. Usually only a handful of applicants pass each year. It would be nice to get rid of any competition that I could._

She tilted her head the other way. _On the other hand, I don't like such terrific potential going to waste. He'll be gifted in nen once he learns it. And it would be a damn shame to see someone with his ability fall so easily. _

_Then again, this is Hanzo. Hanzo who won't shut up, thinks the universe is there at his beck and call, and knows nothing of subtlety. _

She looked down at Hanzo, before muttering a 'fuck everything' under her breath.

"Goddammit!"

* * *

**I'm back! With a 10k chapter! So things started out pretty slow when writing this, but then I have a six hour car ride and five thousand words popped out and the other five came trickling in after that. As always, a giant shout out to my beta, _breather_, who I am eternally grateful for. Seriously, she does so much for me and frankly, I don't know what I would be doing without them. Updates on chapter progress can always be found on my profile, and I am happy to say that the wait will be no where near as long as the last two chapters were. **

**Reviews are welcome, and I do reply to most of them! :D Favorite and follow too! PM's are also welcome, if you have ideas for Akumi. Though I have a rough outline for this entire story, you never know what can happen.**

**Stay fabulous my lovely readers. **


	11. A sitting rock

**(Published July 12th, 2015)**

* * *

"**The first person to pass the third trial is applicant 63, Akumi Chisio, with the time 65:47, taking a total of six hours and thirteen minutes in total to finish the tower."**

Akumi stepped into the empty circular room, before plopping carelessly to the ground.

"My head hurts."

"Well Hanzo, that's what happens when you get nailed in the head by a foot."

"That hurt Kumi-kun!"

"**The second person to pass the third trial is applicant 294, Hanzo, with the time 65:46, taking a total of six hours and fourteen minutes in total to finish the tower."**

Oh hell no, that nickname was not sitting with her. She gave him a look that would have most seasoned hunters running with tails between their legs, but Hanzo just gave her a grin.

"My name is Akumi, and I swear to whatever damn deity you ninjas believe in, if you call me that again, I will have you rolling on the ground lacking a certain organ that I'm sure most guys are very fond of having."

"A stomach?"

Akumi had to hold herself back from banging her head into the wall.

"Besides," Hanzo said, lying on the ground and staring up at the ceiling. "I'm gonna keep doing that until you tell me how you do the thing with the blood. That's not anything I've ever seen in my training."

"Is that seriously it? I would've told you that without having to bargain." She scooted over so that she would be closer. "That's something pretty simple, though most tend to keep ne-"

"**The third person to pass the third trial is applicant 44, Hisoka, with the time 65:43, taking a total of six hours and seventeen minutes in total to finish the tower."**

"Hello my lovely pomegranate," Hisoka said, waltzing into the room while twirling a card in his hand, no worse for wear other than a cut in his shoulder. "And other person."

Ignoring an indignant Hanzo, Akumi threw one of Illumi's needles at Hisoka. "I am not a damn fruit! Why is everyone insisting on calling me something other than my actual name?!"

Hisoka gave Hanzo a questioning look that asked, '_What did you do to piss her off?_' before joining the pair to create a triangle.

Ignoring the sour look on Akumi's face, Hisoka began building a pyramid out of his cards, only to watch them tumble to the ground as Akumi blew on the top layer.

After boring herself annoying Hisoka, Akumi began inspecting the room they were stuck in for the next three days, finding a bathroom off to one side. After telling the pair in the main room, she undressed to inspect the her wounds, before getting into the shower.

The slits on her wrist were deeper than she had needed them to be, panic causing her to cut too deeply, but she knew it would be healed in a few days. One of the things she could do with her blood was focus the all the nutrients towards one specific wound, healing it at a rapid breakneck pace. The majority of her attention was taken by the large gash in her side, which she knew would take much longer than the day it would take for her wrists. The adrenaline had finally left her entire system and she could feel the exhaustion of her rapid blood reproduction stunt wearing on her.

The enhancer based ability had come after realizing that one of her major weaknesses was losing blood so quickly without a way to replenish it. The first time she had tried the stunt, her master had dragged her off to the hospital after she had only been able to create enough blood to not die immediately. The second time had results similar to the first, and it wasn't until she made her first limitation that it worked well enough that she wasn't dragged to the hospital immediately afterwards.

Her first limitation was simple, which stated that any blood she took out of her body couldn't be put back. That meant as she used more and more weapons, she would run lower and lower on blood. And the blood reproduction ability wouldn't kick in until she was near dead, with almost half her blood gone. It ran all sorts of risks, but it was the simplest thing she could think of that still managed to keep her nen as powerful as it was.

She finished up showering pretty quickly, walking out to see her clothes clean and no longer covered in dirt and grime. She gave them an odd look, before putting them back on and walking back to the main room to find a meal cart sitting in the middle. Grabbing the one that had her number painted on the top, she was surprised to find one of her standard meals from the Zoldyck household in front of her. Beginning to eat, she looked over to see Hanzo wolfing down various types of sushi.

"I'm taking a nap guys. Wake me up if someone drops dead." Without waiting for a reply, she slumped backwards, falling asleep quickly, albeit with a dagger hidden in one hand.

* * *

A familiar killing intent woke her up just in time to deflect a pin flying straight for her eye. Rubbing her eyes, she stood up, working out the stiff muscles in her body before turning to see Illumi in front of her, the needles gone from his face and in his normal appearance.

"Took you long enough to get here," she said, noticing that Hanzo was out cold and Hisoka was throwing cards at some unknown target on the wall. "How long have I been out?"

"Only a few hours," Hisoka replied, eyes burning a hole into the wall. "Ninja boy won't be waking up from any noise. I made sure of that." Closer observation showed two blobs of Hisoka's sickly sweet nen covering Hanzo's ears, effectively muting any noise the trio might make.

"Say Akumi," Illumi said, twirling a needle in his hand. "It seems the ninja has some interesting aura running through his system."

Akumi gave him a look. "I had to take some desperate measures to get through the last phase."

"Really Akumi?" Hisoka asked, eyebrows raised mockingly. "And here I thought you were actually an interesting piece of fruit. All of this has been terribly easy so far. It's a wonder if you're actually that powerful, given how much trouble it seems you had."

Akumi opened her mouth, only to close it again. It wasn't any use trying to defend herself. Leaving Hisoka with just a glare, she turned her attention towards Illumi, who had begun to polish the heads of his needles. Taking the last of the needles out of her pocket, Akumi threw them at Illumi. Seeing him do nothing in retaliation but give her an annoyed glare, she gave an exaggerated sigh and threw herself against the wall. It was going to be a boring two days.

* * *

Save for the single applicant that had stumbled in with a gaping hole in his stomach during lunch, not a single remotely interesting thing happened in the sixty hours following Illumi's appearance. The aforementioned was back in his Gittarackur disguise, clacking away at anyone that decided to give him more than a passing glance. Hisoka was staring off into space thinking of god-knows what, and Akumi was focusing her nen on fixing the now-smaller hole in her side.

Distantly, she realized that there was little more than ten minutes left, and no signs of Killua or company, but the boredom over the past few days led to Akumi finding herself lacking even less shits to give than usual.

Wild arm movements out of the corner of her eye brought her attention to Hanzo, who was talking about something nobody cared about to an obviously annoyed examinee, who was shaking their head everyone once in a while, though whether from trying to stay awake or feign attention, she really wasn't sure.

Oddly enough, Hanzo had never disclosed the details of the phase to the other applicants. When asked about the phase, he would just start complaining about the wire maze, excluding Akumi's involvement in it completely. The first time, after giving a long detailed epic about the wire maze, Hanzo had turned towards Akumi and given her a very not-discrete wink. During the course of this, she had attempted to figure out whether he was really _that_ stupid, or if it was all an act. After the fifth time, which ended with her thoughts running in an endless circle, she gave up trying to figure out what made that man tick.

With two minutes left on the clock, Akumi got up, stretching the muscles that had been sitting on the floor for the past five hours. Glancing towards Hisoka, she saw a smug smirk on his face, the same one he had worn after punching her in an alleyway. _What's that clown face up to now?_

A ding interrupted her before she could continue wondering what Hisoka was plotting, revealing the trio of Gon, Killua, and Kurapika, followed moments later by Leorio and Tonpa.

_Wonder how all of them managed to get stuck together. Though it would have been interesting to see me with them. Seems like it would be fun killing Tonpa._

She gave a little nod to herself.

_Yeah. I'll add him to my 'kill at some point' list. Right there under that snotty hunter, Menchi._

* * *

_Hunting each other, eh? _Akumi looked around at the crowd, amused at the accusatory stares that everyone was giving each other. Unlike the others, she left her tag on, waiting to see if she could learn anything. Besides Illumi and Hisoka, she was not at all worried about getting her tag stolen, and even those two would most likely go after other targets instead of herself.

She felt the hairs on her neck rise as someone looked at her tag, feeling the fear radiate off of them moments later. _Bingo._ She turned towards the applicant, number 326, who was staring at the ground way too intently. Feeling another gaze on her, she turned to see Killua looking at her, unable to hide the relief on his face upon seeing that his number didn't match hers. Meeting his gaze, she gave a small smirk, before following the other applicants onto the ferry that would take them to Zevil Island.

* * *

"Go!"

Akumi stepped off the boat onto the wide open field, staring into the trees before taking off at a leisurely pace. Before she was hidden from sight by the trees she turned around and waved back towards the boat, a single tag in her hand. Moments later, 326 was searching through his pockets wildly, searching for the tag that Akumi had grabbed moments after they had stepped onto the boat.

Leaving a confused group of applicants behind, she began running through the forest, ignoring the hunter who was following behind her.

…

After running for an hour, Akumi reached the center part of the island, where the two sides were connected by a thin strip of land and surrounded by beach. The sun was nearing its highest point, and she could feel boredom creeping up on her again. _Nearly a week to hunt down two other people. I'm just going to be sitting on my ass for the entire week._

A quick swim in the water gave Akumi enough fish for a noon meal, and minutes later, a small fire was burning in the sand pit. Placing the fish by the fire, she walked around the surrounding area, looking for some form of entertainment. A movement in the grass caught her eye, just in time for her to see an arrow lodge itself in a tree a few meters away. Following the direction that it came from, she saw an archer facing another person, before they collapsed to the ground.

_Poisonous arrow, _she thought, seeing the small cut on his shoulder. Taking hold of the shaft of the arrow, she pulled it from the trunk, keeping half an eye on the man in the grass going through his opponent's bag. Suddenly, she felt eyes on her, though it wasn't from either of the examinees in the field. Scanning the area, she saw two brown eyes staring at her from the cover of trees. Their eyes met for a single moment, before the other scrambled away, barely rustling the canopy.

_That must have been Gon, _she thought, watching as the archer left the other man on the ground. _I wonder how he saw me. The kid must have a crazy sense of hearing. _She broke the head of the arrow off, tucking it in one of her pockets.

After eating, Akumi checked the injury on her side. Skin had grown over it, though that was basically all, and she knew it would be another week before she could move comfortably again. She spent the rest of the afternoon meditating, trying to hurry along the slow process of healing.

...

The day passed, continuing on into the next with Akumi's boredom getting the better of her. Exercise and nen training could only go for so long without her going on a killing spree, and combined with the two days of sitting in Trick Tower, she was ready to attack the hunter who had been watching her. Before she could make a move towards her stalker, a monkey burst suddenly through the trees, followed by Kurapika and Leorio, the latter of whom was screaming profanity at it.

Caught off guard by the bizarre scene, Akumi could only blink for a few moments before laughing and getting up to follow the odd trio. Running soundlessly through the forest, she arrived just in time to see Leorio jump on top of the monkey, while Kurapika grabbed the badges in its hand.

"Hello," Akumi said, stepping into the small clearing. Leorio scrambled to stand back up, pulling out the dagger he had. Kurapika took a defensive stance beside him, barely concealed panic in his eyes.

"Oh calm down," she said, waving her hand around. "I'm not here to steal your badges. I'm just bored out of my mind."

There was a tense silence, broken by the monkey who scrambled away. "Prove it," Kurapika said, body still tensed in a fighting position.

Sighing, Akumi reached in her pocket, only to cut her hand open on the arrow head still in her pocket. _Shit. _Reaching in the other one, she pulled out the plate, which read 287.

"No idea who it is, so I'm just waiting for two other people to pop in."

Leorio decided to speak, though it came out more like a strangled yelp. "And what's to say we aren't those two people?"

Akumi shrugged. "Well, you guys seem kinda interesting. And the Kurta over there has a lot of poten-"

"What did you say?"

Kurapika's voice came out deathly quiet, startling Akumi for a single moment.

"Kurta. You," she pointed at him, speaking slowly. "You're a Kurta." She paused. "Was that supposed to be a secret? 'Cause the clothes kinda gave it away kid."

"What do you know about them?" he asked, eyes starting to turn red.

"Well they're _supposed _to be dead, seeing as they were murdered by the Phantom Troupe, but I can see now that you're still alive." A small voice in her head was telling her she was treading on extremely thin ice. She ignored it. "Terrible thing. They were wonderful fighters, I heard. Would've been fun to fight them. Too bad the spiders got to them first. Though I can see the beauty in taking the eyes. They fetch a wonderful pri-"

She was cut off as Kurapika charged at her, eyes glowing a scarlet red. _Oh damn, he really is pissed. _Dodging the wooden swords, she let the blood from her cut on her hand form a thin layer, before hardening it. The next swing came from her right, and she ducked down, before swinging her arm upwards, catching him in the gut. He flew up, before crashing into a tree.

"Holy shit, calm yourself kid. That's how you get yourself killed with the Phantom Troupe." She walked over to him, grabbing a fistful of his hair, before staring intently at him. _Damn, this kid is gonna be strong when he learns nen. I wouldn't even mind teaching him. I'd probably kill him with the nen baptism though…_

His eyes slowly dulled from crimson, to burgundy, to maroon, before finally reverting back to brown, though he still looked ready to punch her.

She stepped back, waiting to see if he would charge. When he didn't, she opened her mouth, then closed it again.

"Don't die yet kid. You have potential," Akumi finally said. She ignored the odd look – probably from the complete change in her personality from the last time Kurapika saw her – before turning around and walking out of the clearing into the forest.

* * *

Later that day, Akumi was playing with the blood that had flowed out of her hand, when the snapping of a twig brought her attention to an unfortunate applicant who had stumbled into her campsite.

"Oh, hello there," she said, forming more small bullets of blood like what she had done in Trick Tower. She ignored the frozen look of horror on his face, twirling the blood around in small circles. "You see, I'm about to go on a little killing spree, as I couldn't fight the other applicants I ran into. Don't bother running. I'll kill you before you can make it that far. Don't take it personally."

The projectiles flew towards the unfortunate applicant, piercing through his midsection and the joints of his knees. He fell forward into the grass, and in a blind panic began to drag himself forwards with his elbows.

"_Tsk_," Akumi muttered, putting a leg on the applicant's back. "I told you running would do no good. Anyways, you have two choices here. You're gonna die either way, but I can make this painless, or very, very painful. Where's the tag?"

"B… Bag," he stumbled out. "Front… Pocket"

Pulling more blood out of the cut in her arm, Akumi formed a dagger before stabbing downward into the applicant's spinal cord. A glance around the body revealed a small green book bag under a bush. She grabbed the bag and walked back to the camp, only to see the blood running down to the sand.

_Seriously, guy? You can't even bother to not bleed out into my camp. _Heaving a sigh, she tossed the body out in the direction of the hunter that had been with her for the past three days. She assumed that someone would retrieve the body when she wasn't looking.

Looking down at the blood, she realized how much of a pain it would to clean up. _Too much effort and nen. _Settling down behind a rock, she began going through the supplies that the applicant had kept with him. None of the things were interesting, save for a rather nice knife that she decided to keep, along with his tag, which read 178.

With nothing else to do, she began Hatsu training. First she would create small balls of blood, starting out with five, before increasing the number. Then, as time went on, she would change the shapes to cubes, pyramids, and prisms before a mix of all of them. Every once in a while, a butterfly would fly up to her, and she began a game of how many pieces she could cut a single butterfly into.

Hours passed like this, with the numbers of butterflies increasing until an entire swarm was sitting with her. _Are they attracted to blood? _Looking out from behind the boulder, Akumi saw that there another swarm surrounding the puddle of blood left by applicant 178. Settling back down, Akumi was content to just watch the butterflies fly around before she detected another presence around her.

If not for the fact that her senses were on alert due to the nen training, she would have missed the body of someone that was sitting on a tree. Channeling out a bubble of en, she realized that it was Gon, who had tied a pair of the butterflies to his finger.

"Gon, I know you're there," she said, standing up and disrupting the butterflies that had been sitting on her shoulders.

Gon froze, before pulling out his fishing pole.

"Calm down, kid. I'm not gonna kill you either." She walked over to the fire pit she had going, tossing some fish on it that she had gathered earlier in the day.

"Either?" Gon asked, eyes still wary but not full of panic like before.

"Yeah," Akumi said, turning the fish over. "Ran into your other buddies a few hours ago." She saw his eyes dart over to the blood on the ground. "Not their blood. Anyways, had a nice chat with the old guy and Kurta before I left them.

"I'm assuming you're still on the hunt for whoever it is you have to get. And I know it's not me. Already got the guy who had me as a target. Now go and find your target and don't die."

With those parting words, Akumi turned back to the fire, ignoring the confused look on Gon's face. They hadn't exactly had the calmest meeting last time. After hearing the rustling of leaves as he left, she snapped her head over to a bush tucked in the corner. She gave it a glare, before the applicant hiding in it scrambled away.

* * *

When the next applicant stumbled into Akumi's camp on the third day, he fully expected his death upon seeing who occupied the clearing. Akumi, too concerned over trying to catch her lunch, merely gave him a look of annoyance before turning back to staring down the fish.

It took a total of three seconds, during which the applicant used to escape the clearing, before Akumi jolted up from her seat, eyes wide in shock. Sparing a moment to glare at the fish flopping in the sand, she darted in the direction the applicant had run. Spotting him a few meters away, she ran up and grabbed the back of his shirt, dragging him back to her camp.

She ignored the look of horror on his face, sitting him down on her rock and glaring at him. Upon seeing no damage being done to his body, the applicant, number 295, turned into a blubbering mess.

Akumi began pacing in circles, ignoring the fact that she was now in the company of a fully grown baby.

"What the hell is wrong with me? Before this entire exam, I would have chased you around, scaring the living shit out of you before torturing and then killing you. Now, I don't even feel like killing you! What the fuck happened?!"

The applicant, who at this point had managed to revert back to acting his own age, was staring wide-eyed at the psychopath in front of him as she talked to herself.

"Even now! Why the hell am I saying this all out loud? What happened to the cold, calculating me?! I barely talked to Illumi, much less some weakling like you!" She turned her attention back to him. "Why the hell are you even alive!?"

At this point, the applicant had just shut his eyes, waiting for what he knew was his inevitable death.

"I even let those kids go without a scare. Well, except blondie, but whatever. I should've at least done _something!_ But no! I even almost offered fishing boy dinner!"

She finally snapped. Too fast for even the eye to see, she kicked the applicant as hard as she could, sending him flying and crashing into the trunk of the tree. Ignoring the fact that the impact had broken the applicant's neck, she stomped down on his head, the skull caving in. She continued her beating, taking out her anger on the barely recognizable corpse.

The sound of someone retching slowly entered the mess of her mind, bringing her back from her rage to notice the swirl of her nen as it spewed out in every direction like water. If the sheer toxicity of her aura was causing a trained nen user to react so negatively at close range, she knew normal people all over the island were either throwing up or passing out.

She stopped moving, closing her eyes and slowing her breathing in an attempt to get her nen under control. Slowly, the chaotic aura slowed its movements, before settling back into a calm ten. Taking an extra breath, she grabbed the tag lying amongst the small indistinguishable pieces of red before looking upwards at the now darkening sky. Annoyance filled her as she stared at the calmness in the stars. _Now I'm getting pissed off at inanimate objects. Great._

"Fuck this, where's Hisoka? I'm losing it."

If she was losing it, she might as well do it in the company of someone equally crazy.

* * *

When Akumi, in a much better mood, finally tracked down Hisoka after spending the entire afternoon looking for him, she was greeted with the scene of him talking to what appeared to be a mound of dirt.

"Uh Hisoka, who are you talking to?" She gestured towards the dirt pile, giving him an odd look.

"Why, it's Illumi of course."

Suddenly the dirt pile opened up to reveal two giant eyes staring at her. They blinked once, dislodging the dirt that was stuck on their eyelashes. Illumi blinked his eyes again before folding his arms in front of himself and propping his head on top of them.

She gave him a small wave, showing off the three tags that she had collected.

"Already got yours, Illumi?" Akumi asked, staring boredly at the blank pair of eyes. Giving a nod, Illumi gathered the dirt around him before ducking back into his hidey hole.

Acting as if Illumi disappearing into a hole was an everyday occurrence — it wasn't –– Akumi turned towards Hisoka, tilting her head and staring intently at him for a moment. Something looked different than from the last time she saw him. She ran through a mental checklist. _Hair? Still defying gravity. Face paint? Still there. Butterflies? Not it. Outfit? Still miraculously clean. Ta- Oh._

"Hisoka," Akumi said, head still tilted. "Where's your name tag?"

"Someone took it."

"Took it?" She stared incredulously at him. "How did _that _happen?"

"I gave it to the boy. It doesn't matter anyways. I have all the tags that I need for the next phase."

"So what are you doing for the next four days on this hell hole of an island?"

"Wherever seems entertaining."

"So basically just scaring the shit out of everyone, right?"

* * *

The final day came with Akumi staring at the mound of dirt that housed Illumi underneath it. She had taken the liberty yesterday to gather some lovely flowers, poisonous of course, and plant them in the ground above what she assumed his head.

"**The Fourth Phase of the Hunter Exam has now ended. All examinees may now return to the area where they were dropped off. Upon return, no tags may be swapped or stolen under risk of failing the exam."**

Akumi began collecting her tags, letting the pebble sized orbs of blood surrounding her fall to the ground. She had spent the last few days refining her nen control with emission, forcing blood to separate into smaller and smaller pieces. Eventually she was hoping to create a mist with her blood, which she could then transform into any shape that she wanted.

"Neh, Illumi," she said, turning back to the untouched dirt pile. "Come walk with me back to the boat."

She waited a few minutes for the dirt to move, giving an agitated sigh when she realized that he wasn't coming up. After Hisoka had left on the fifth day, Akumi had only had the company of a dirt pile, leaving her even more bored than before. At least at the beach, she had seen a few things interesting. Now, surrounded by forest, there was nothing.

She muttered something along the lines of him being an '_asshole that couldn't bother to even so much as move in the past four days.' _Right as she was leaving the clearing, the pile of boulders to her left caught her eye, and after a moment of contemplating, she dashed over and got to work.

…

With only ten minutes left to get to the other side of the island, Akumi stare proudly at the pile of rocks surrounding Illumi's hiding place. She knew that Illumi would stay put where he was, even if it was just to satisfy his curiosity as to what she was doing. A pile of boulders rested above his head along with rocks surrounding him on all sides underground, reinforced with just a tiny bit of nen. It would still be child's play for Illumi to get out of the makeshift rock tomb, but it would still annoy him to no end. To top everything off, she left a small ring of flowers (also poisonous) around him.

After giving a small wave to the pile of rocks, she started running towards the meeting place on the other side of the island.

Over the course of the four days that she had sat in the clearing, Akumi had had plenty time to think about how the Hunter Exam had managed to change her personality. Staying with the Zoldycks for the past five years had managed to calm her down a little bit, though she would still most definitely end up in an insane asylum if she ever decided to take a psych test.

The first phase of the Hunter Exam hadn't really impacted her. She just ran. And ran. And ran. And also met Hisoka, but that hadn't exactly calmed her down. The swamp hadn't really impacted her, and neither had the cooking phase. But there was still Trick Tower.

Akumi slowed down a bit, thinking back to the events with Hanzo. _Why did I not throw him under the bus? _It's not like he had saved her life or helped her in anyway during the third phase of the exam. In fact, he had slowed her down and almost caused both of their deaths several times. And yet, she hadn't backstabbed him.

She'd gone from a backstabbing psychotic murderer to a murderer who wasn't as psychotic and slightly less inclined to backstab her partner. And she wasn't sure whether she like it or not.

* * *

Akumi arrived at the large clearing at the edge of the island with two minutes to spare. A glance around showed that Killua had managed to make it, along with Gon, Kurapika, and Leorio. She moved to stand by Hisoka, waving her four tags at the lady who was scanning Hanzo's tags.

"Where's Illu-chan?" Hisoka asked, scanning the tree line behind them. The Hunters that had followed each of them were lurking in the trees, watching them.

A clicking noise interrupted Akumi before she could reply, who turned to see a very irritated Illumi in his Gittarackur disguise.

"I buried him in rocks," Akumi said, seeing the questioning look on Hisoka's face. She could feel Illumi's scowl burning a hole through her. "It's not like it was that hard to escape from."

Ignoring the glare, she turned to see Hanzo waving for her to come over to the where he was standing with an old man and the archer that had almost hit her on the first day on the island. She saw the old man tense and could feel fear running off the archer in waves. Ignoring them, she allowed herself to be entertained by Hanzo's empty babbling while boarding the ship.

Akumi realized two hours into the boat ride and only halfway through one of Hanzo's stories that she still lacked the patience to deal with the hyperactive ninja in more than single, one hour increments at a time. She was seriously considering throwing him off the side when she finally saw the vague shape of an island form on the horizon.

Even Hanzo, being the thick-headed person that he was, could notice the sudden tension in the air. He look towards Akumi, who had put on a serious face to match his, was also staring at him. A single understanding passed between them.

The final phase of the Hunter Exam was about to begin.

* * *

**I realized when adding in line breaks how many of them there are. Whoops. Well that's what Zevil island tends to do when not following canon. I'm not dead. Just lacking motivation. Don't worry, that's been me all summer. **

**Updates on progress are on my profile, so check there to see if I'm dead or not. I'm most likely not. Shout out, of course, to my fabulous beta, breather, who has helped me do this story, giving me advice when I need it. (Trust me, I ask for it. A lot.) Faves and follows are appreciated, and reviews are awesome. Any questions can be asked in a review or in PM. **

**Stay Fabulous.**


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